Full Blast
by The Interrupter
Summary: Speed. He who strikes first, strikes best. That is the motto of Konoha's first Fast Response team. Under Kakashi's guidance these three have fought shoulder to shoulder all across the Elemental Nations. However, they will need every ounce of skill, power, and luck they have to defend their home from the countless threats of the shinobi world. Female Naruto.
1. Chapter 1: A Misty Road

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. When I do, I'll keep on writing this. Otherwise someone will know I have the rights and will promptly kill me.**

In the forests of Hi no Kuni, just outside of predawn Konoha, four figures leapt nimbly from tree to tree in a staggered line. While they looked collected from a distance, up close, they were exhausted. While blank masks covered their faces, the body language of the group spoke volumes. The head of the line had a bizarre silver head of hair and seemed to be the most at ease of the group.

Behind him, a brown haired teen loped along the branches, stumbling slightly, but never falling.

A girl, also in her teenage years, with inky black hair that fell just below her shoulders moved more steadily but more slowly than her male counterpart.

Taking the rearguard position was another girl, this one with hair of a dark red color. While she seemed better off than the two between her and the squad captain, her hands occasionally twitched and her eyes scanned the landscape almost restlessly, despite their position in friendly territory.

"We're nearly there," announced the silver-haired captain, not breaking stride.

"Finally," the black haired girl spoke, her hair shifting to a light pink color as she removed her mask to reveal jade green eyes and a tired visage, "Do you think we'll have to report tonight?"

The brunette's hair shifted to an inky black as he too removed his blank mask, showing off his own haggard countenance,"Technically, Sakura, it's today," he noted, only to receive a scowl from the now dubbed Sakura, "Though we may be able to show up later if the Hokage isn't in the tower."

"He is," the redhead called out from the rear, the color seemed to bleed off her freely hanging locks to a golden yellow. "I'm sure of it," she finished firmly as she removed her mask.

Sakura glanced over her shoulder, "How do you know, Naruto?" she asked casually.

"My goggles told me," she replied easily, removing the pair from a pouch from somewhere on her cloak.

After a moment silence, she continued, "Would you like to hear them yourself?"

"Nope," Sakura replied casually.

"Why not?"

"Because," Sakura said with a sigh, "either they won't say anything and I'll feel foolish.

"Or?" Naruto prompted.

"They will speak and I don't believe my fragile psyche can handle that right now," Sakura finished succinctly.

"Your psyche isn't that fragile, Sakura," the silver haired man spoke as he removed his mask to reveal... another mask.

"Oh really," Sakura spoke looking forward, " last week I caved in a man's chest then quickly ate a sandwich because his friends were coming to kill us."

"You gotta eat, Sakura, that's normal," Naruto piped up from the back.

"Agreed," the raven haired boy spoke again, "Although, you shouldn't eat fast. Aren't you a medic? You should know that," he finished, antagonizing his now visibly annoyed teammate.

"I'm too tired now, but tomorrow, you are going to pay for that, Sasuke"

"Add it to my tab, Sakura-chan," the Uchiha replied flippantly.

"Now children, their captain spoke, mirth apparent in his visible eye, "we'll be at the entrance soon and we will be reporting to Hokage-sama regardless of your complaining. I'm sure he will be very interested to hear how you managed to escape from one of Iwa's oldest fortresses just after it blew up, inevitably causing political tensions all around."

"Whoops," Naruto spoke with a straight face.

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage was many things: an inspiring leader, the vaunted Professor, and to those old enough to remember, the Shinobi no Kami.

He was also pushing seventy and rather annoyed to be awake at this late hour. The ANBU guarding his office were no more pleased than he was

Leaning back to stretch his tired muscles and fill his pipe, Hiruzen contemplated heading home. Perhaps the timetable given to him by Kakashi was off. After all the man was late to everything. It wouldn't be all that surprising if the jounin had taken that into account out of habit.

Wait, a set of oh so familiar signatures were near and approaching quickly. A brief burst of effort from the venerable shinobi confirmed that all four members of Konoha's Fast Response team prototype were back in the village. He briefly wondered, as the feeling of the tobacco filled his chest, if he would get home before the sun rose. Naruto had a tendency give concise explanations followed by detailed reports. Kakashi, on the other hand would ramble on inane subjects and when asked to write a mission report, either made it as unwieldy and tedious as possible or passed it off to the blonde Uzumaki .

Speaking of which, Naruto chose that moment to sail through his window, landing in a low crouch in front of his desk. Her cloak pooled around her. The ANBU hadn't reacted, either sensing her coming or too used to the occurrence to be surprised.

A moment later her worn out squadmates landed close by, followed by Kakashi himself. The jounin opted to take his usual position leaning by the window. All of the members of Fast Response were still disguised. It would be rather suspicious to have a team of genin with just under a year of field experience wander the village in its early hours.

The ANBU squad disappeared without a word, knowing the prototype squad had a strict code for debriefing.

Casting a calm gaze of the tired, but seemingly uninjured shinobi as they removed their masks, the Hokage fixed his gaze on Kakashi and Naruto, "It seems your mission to extract the remaining members of your team was a success."

"Of course, Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied easily, "You expected less."

"No, just curious Akatou is a tough nut to crack," the Sandaime said pointedly.

Kakashi simply gestured for Naruto to speak. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but spoke anyway.

"We went to Tsuchi, destroyed the base, got those two, and left," Naruto said flatly, "Can we go?"

Sarutobi replied with a tired sigh, "Elaborate."

Naruto eyeballed the window, wondering how good her odds were of getting past Kakashi and into the streets below. A slight shifting of his body blocked her potential escape.

Traitor.

"Alright, fine," Naruto took a breath, "We reached the area outside of Akatou without any issue. Upon arrival, I crept into the fortress, planted explosive tags on every tower outside, slipped into the main compound, planted more tags on the walls as well as the barracks and kitchen, poisoned the jounin commander with his own tea, fooled the warden, grabbed Sakura and Sasuke, and blew set off the tags. Kakashi took care of the stragglers and we went on our merry way, leaving a trail of fallen enemies behind. That is all. now can we go? They look dead on their feet," Naruto finished somewhat sardonically while gesturing to her fellow genin."

She was right. Sakura was swaying from side to side and while Sasuke appeared to have his eyes closed in thought, he was actually a hair's breadth from sleeping on his feet.

"You may go," the Sandaime agreed

"Great." Naruto said turning for the window, one hand moving her mask to her face, the other supporting Sakura.

"Just as soon as you tell me how you crossed a wide stretch of land with no cover, crossed a wall with a constant patrol, a dodged every sensor in the area."

"Always a catch, isn't there?" Naruto said to no one in particular.

Sakura seemed to nod either in agreement or exhaustion and Sasuke lazily opened his eyes at Naruto's annoyed tone.

The Sandaime merely puffed his pipe, a picture of serenity and patience.

Naruto stared. The Hokage stared back.

After a full ten seconds, Naruto broke off contact to nod to Kakashi, who in turn shut the blinds on the already closed window.

Safe from any unlikely prying eyes, Naruto spoke, "All right jiji, you win. I slipped into the area using a combination of Raiton: Atsuen Ikazuchi no jutsu(Lightning Release: Rolling Thunder) and these"

Naruto concentrated for a moment. Suddenly, a massive pair of red feathery wings sprouted from her back, filling a good portion of the large office.

Sarutobi, to his credit, didn't display any visual signs of surprise and why should he? He had seen many strange things in his life, and a girl who grew wings was certainly not the top of the list.

Naruto shuddered slightly when Sakura opted to rest her head on her wing.

It came pretty close though.

The Professor examined her for a moment before speaking, "I see, you modified your solid henge to sprout a wingspan significant enough to lift your weight. Interesting."

Naruto merely raised an eyebrow at the systematic breakdown of something she had spent months planning and implementing. She had to find just the right ratio of wingspan to weight. Not to mention how many birds had met their end so that she could figure out what their anatomy did to allow for flight. It turned out to be hollow bones among a few other things she didn't care to replicate. Air sacs inside her body didn't seem like such a great idea. All that work and the Sandaime broke it down with nary a second glance. It was a sharp kick to her pride

Oh well, the Old Man was the Hokage after all.

The Hokage smiled smugly, "Now, you may leave."

Naruto's wings snapped back into her body with an audible crack as she lifted the now sleeping Sakura into her arms. She shook Sasuke back to wakefulness. Then, the three exited through the now-open window into the quiet, early morning below.

Kakashi hung back after his students left. Uncrossing his arms and kicking off the wall, he face the Hokage. "I do hope the thought of a flying army isn't tempting enough to cause any... unwise behavior."

Hiruzen merely puffed his pipe once more, "Of course not, I do understand inter-village politics regarding strategic weapons. I wrote a book on it, in fact."

"My apologies, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said tilting his head slightly. "I am merely worried what some people would do if they knew of our new... air force."

"Naruto's abilities will remain hidden as long as possible. The power of flight isn't so uncommon that war would break out over it. The grizzled Hokage puffed a few times on his favorite pipe. On to another subject, is there anyway to trace Akatou to us?"

"No, I used Raiton to clear up the survivors and all Naruto did was use a few modified explosive tags to bring the structures down. With any luck, Iwa will blame Kumo until both parties realize that our squad has its full strength. By that point, however, we should have more than a single squad to run missions," Kakashi voice had taken an irritated tone by the end.

"Honestly, they're worn out Hokage-sama. None of them, including me have had more than a couple of days off since they started missions. I'm worried for them." Kakashi ran a hand through his silver hair as he paced around the office. "Not just physically either, Naruto killed dozens of people at Akatou. That's going to wear her down fast.

The Sandaime seemed pleased. "You really do care for them, don't you, Kakashi?"

Kakashi stopped his pacing and looked almost wistful. "I suppose I do, however," he snapped back into focus, "my point stands."

The Sandaime stood and looked out the window toward the slightly brightening sky. "Kakashi, plans are being put in place to have Fast Response as an official division of the ANBU after the upcoming Chunin Exams in Tetsu no Kuni. That should lighten the burden on both our beleaguered field teams."

"Team," Kakashi corrected.

The Hokage turned back to Kakashi, "For now, I'm giving your team a simple C-rank. We have to keep up appearances as a simple genin team after all. I have just the one, I believe. Tell me Kakashi. How do you feel about Nami no Kuni?"

Kakashi merely shrugged.

* * *

The three pseudo-genin landed on a nearby building with Sakura still in Naruto's arms. Sasuke took a knee upon landing. Weariness enveloped him like a numbing blanket.

Naruto managed to make her signature hand sign despite Sakura. Four clones faded into existence.

"I'll take Sakura home," the blonde announced, "Are you alright to walk?"

"Of course," Sasuke replied in his usual smug manner. "Unlike some people," Sasuke said glancing at Sakura, "I have endurance.

One of Naruto's clones lightly struck the back of Sasuke's leg with its foot. He crumbled to one knee before shooting a glare at the offending doppelganger. He stood and spoke, "That proves nothing."

"Of course not," Naruto replied with a grin. "I'll see you later."

"Right, and" Sasuke paused for a moment, "thank you." he finished before bounding across the rooftops with Naruto's clones in a diamond pattern around him.

He may insulted Sakura, but he couldn't hide the flicker of worry behind his derisive stare. The bastard cared after all. Who knew?

Naruto looked at the sleeping girl in her arm, debating whether or not dropping her would be funny. On one hand, the look on her face would be priceless. However, Sakura could cave in a wall with a punch.

Decisions, decisions.

Oh well, It'd be hard to see her face in the dark anyway. Pushing a little chakra to her legs, she took off towards Sakura's home.

* * *

After managing to get Sakura safely to her room by picking the lock to her window and dropping her on her bed, Naruto returned to her own apartment complex.

As she kicked off her shoes and shut the door, her shoulders finally let out the knot of tension she hadn't known she was carrying. Things had worked out for once. Sasuke and Sakura were unharmed and no one had survived Akatou to tell the tale.

Yes, no one lived through that. Dozens of people with family, friends, and dreams were dead by her hand.

She shook those thoughts from her head as she maneuvered through her apartment, twisting around piles of scrolls and half finished sealing arrays on the road to her bedroom. Her clothes seemed to shift into something more comfortable as she collapsed face first onto the bed.

* * *

Her eyes snapped open a second later. She was lying on her back in water.

Damn, what did the fox want now.

With a sigh she navigated the sewer that represented her mind to its source. A set of bars with a deceptively simple looking kanji for seal held two massive gates closed. Behind the gates darkness seemed to stretch to infinity.

Tapping her foot in irritation, Naruto spoke,"What is it now, I've had a very long day."

Two red slitted eyes, as tall as she was, snapped open from within the cage.

"**Yes, it is rather irksome to be kept somewhere you don't want to be. Isn't it?"**

Naruto scoffed at that. "Keep it quick, Kyuubi, I am going to get some sleep one way or another."

The eyes merely seemed amused at her reaction. **"You really are meant for me," **the Kyuubi spoke finishing with a savage grin.

Naruto narrowed her eyes at that, "Just what the hell are you talking about?"

The massive demon's grin merely widened. **"What do I mean? You crushed those between you and what you wanted without a second thought. I've never been so proud."**

A scowl matched Naruto's angry eyes. "I did what had to be done. I do not take pleasure in the deaths of those people."

"**Lying to me is one thing, but don't lie to yourself. Face it. You enjoyed every second of your time there, the thrill of being in the center of a place crawling with enemies, the pride at being able to kill a jounin, the satisfaction of watching everything come together as the whole place went up in glorious flames."** By the end of its tirade the Kyuubi was practically yelling in glee.

Naruto's bangs shadowed her eyes as she looked down. Her head snapped up as she glared at the titanic demon, "I am nothing like you," she snapped angrily.

If possible, the grin widened further, **"You are exactly like me, and once you realize that, things will be so much easier. Now leave. I tire of your pointless denials."**

Before she could tell the massive fox exactly what it could do with its tails, Naruto was thrust out of her own mind.

* * *

The rest of Naruto's night went no better. A few hours after her conversation with her tenant, she awoke sweating bullets.

The face, that same damnable face.

Unable or unwilling to go back to sleep, Naruto decided to get an early start on her day.

After a quick, freezing shower, her clothes took their usual form on her body. Standard black pants covered her legs and a long sleeved black shirt lay under an orange combat vest. Her equipment puch was quickly strapped to her right thigh and her hitai-ate was tied securely around her throat. Her trademark goggles sat high up on her forehead. She placed her hair into its usual pigtails and went to her workbench.

Her oldest project was nearly finished. It just required a few more hours of constant focus. That was just what she needed. She didn't need to be alone with her thoughts anyway

* * *

Sakura and Sasuke arrived at Naruto's apartment several hours later. unable to find her in the village.

Sakura was dressed in her usual attire, a red top with a white circular design, tight black shorts, a pink apron skirt, open-toed boots, and gloves. Her headband was on top of her head and her hair was held in a single ponytail.

Sasuke was dressed in a pair of loose fitting black pants along with a blue shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back and sandals. His headband was tied securely around his forehead.

They opened the door without knocking, observing as a small sealing array glowed before fading.

They walked through the apartment, following a distinct sparking noise. They came upon Naruto working on a large object with a metal rod while her goggles shielded her eyes from the sparks coming off the points where the rod met the metallic object.

She spun around when they got near the rod in her hands still glowing softly, the only visible source of light in the room. "Oh, hey, I didn't see you there."

"Apparently," Sasuke snorted.

"Sakura opened the curtains and only window in the room, "Damn, how can you work in the dark like this?"

"Practice?" Naruto offered weakly, scratching the back of her head.

"We couldn't find you anywhere," Sasuke cut in, "I was hoping to get some training in, but you were nowhere to be found."

"Sorry, I was invested in finishing this thing up."

"What is it?" Sakura asked, trying to look past Naruto's shoulder at the bench.

"Oh," Naruto broke out of her reverie and grabbed the object off the bench. Faint runic lines still stretched across its surface as she held it up to her teammates. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"It's," Sakura started, "big."

"Come on you idiot. It's just a-"

"Don't you dare call it a 'just', teme. It took me a year to figure this beauty out." Naruto said, cutting off her male teammate.

"Is it finished?" Sakura asked, effectively cutting off any further arguing.

"As of one minute ago, yes" Naruto replied proudly.

Before anyone else could speak, Kakashi appeared outside the window Sakura had previously opened. "Yo, we've got a mission," he said holding a scroll.

Three pairs of angry eyes fixed on him.

"What?" the cycloptic jounin asked with a hand on the back of his neck.

Sakura opted to speak on behalf of all three, "How the hell do we have a mission this fast? We just got home!"

"Oh, is that all? This is a nice little C-rank assigned to Team Seven," Kakashi replied emphasizing the 'Seven'.

"How long?" Naruto asked.

"A couple of weeks in beautiful Nami no Kuni, escorting and guarding a 'master' bridge builder named Tazuna. No bailing out overwhelmed squads. It's a vacation, really." Kakashi said, doing his best to sell his team on the mission.

"C-rank, huh?" Naruto seemed to be pondering the mission.

He just needed to give a little push.

"You won't have to fight any ridiculous high ranked shinobi, promise."

Naruto looked at Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura nodded while Sasuke gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Fine, when do we leave."

Bingo.

"Be at the gates in one hour to meet the client."

With that Kakashi disappeared in a shunshin to presumably prepare for the mission.

"Well," Naruto said turning around, "who's up for some R and R?"

* * *

Naruto arrived at the gate after a hearty meal at Ichiraku's to find her fellow genin already in place and leaning against the gate. There was also a haggard man dressed in simple clothing with a pointed hat on his head. As Naruto got closer she noticed he smelled distinctly of cheap alcohol. She threw a wave and received a smile from Sakura and slight nod from Sasuke.

The jinchuuriki turned to her team. "I take it this is the client."

Sakura kicked off the booth before nodding, "We're just waiting on Kakashi-sensei."

"We're always waiting on Kakashi," Sasuke said casually.

"That's not a very nice thing to say about your commander, Sasuke-kun," came a voice from above.

The three genin and client looked up to see Kakashi sitting casually on top of the booth with his legs dangling below.

Sasuke whipped around to Sakura, "You knew he was there, didn't you?"

"Sure did," Sakura replied brightly.

"Damn sensor."

"Jealous?"

"Hardly," Sasuke scoffed.

"Alright boys and girls," Kakashi cut in, "Let's get a move on."

"I expect you four to protect me with your lives," Tazuna finally decided to speak.

Naruto graced him with a smile, "Relax, Tazuna-san. We don't do anything halfway."

Sasuke cut in, "even if we rather would."

"Especially if we rather would, teme," Naruto shot back.

"Right," Kakashi said with a clap, "let's go."

With that, Team Seven set out once again.

* * *

They kept a good pace for civilian travel. Their formation was typical for escorts, Naruto took the front with Sasuke and Sakura behind her to guard the flanks. Kakashi took the back to read his book in peace. There was little traffic on the roads and Tazuna seemed to be in better shape than expected from his appearance. Naruto had taken to whistling tunelessly as they traversed the forested countryside.

Tazuna was actually traveling as quickly as he could without seeming suspicious. He had expected a team of chunin to take the mission, not a genin squad. Even if there was a jounin to balance the team out, the man was much more likely to protect his students over his deceitful client.

As a result, Tazuna was anxious to get home before things went to hell.

The puddle was glaringly obvious to the team that had been running missions throughout the continent for nearly a year. Naruto, who still hadn't stopped whistling, put her hands behind her head to give a discrete signal to Sasuke and Sakura. She had put up her ring and middle finger on her left hand and tapped the back of her head with her right index finger. This was the signal for Sasuke and Sakura to deal with the upcoming opponents. Sakura was designated by the left ring finger and the tapping of the right index finger was the signal to attack.

Sasuke, much to his annoyance and Naruto's amusement, was designated by the left middle finger.

Naruto continued to whistle as the group moved forward. Just as Kakashi was next to the puddle, two masked figures burst from the ground and encircled Kakashi with chains.

"One-," was as far as the ninja got before receiving a kunai ring to the head and a elongated knife to the shoulder courtesy of Sasuke and Sakura, respectively. One was knocked out by the attack to the head and the other only had time to blink before being smashed in the head by a devastating punch from Sakura. The two made sure their opponents were disabled before Sasuke strung them together with ninja wire.

The conflict lasted under three seconds and Naruto opted to add a flourish to her whistling as her team promptly despatched their attackers.

"Aww," Kakahi whined, "I didn't get the chance to be killed."

"Were it so easy," Sasuke muttered.

"Wonder what they were after," said Naruto, who had come over to examine the new captives.

"They couldn't have been stupid enough to think they had a real chance at Kakashi-sensei's bounty," Sakura said.

"None of us are well known enough to be in the bingo book. I would know," Naruto spoke.

"That just leaves..." Sasuke trailed off.

Tazuna, who had been awed by the display of brutal skill, found four sets of eyes on him.

"There's a very good reason for that," Tazuna said nervously.

"I'll bet," Kakashi drawled, "do fill us in.

"Well," Tazuna began, "It started several years ago when the shipping magnate, Gato, moved his operations into our 's taken over the country as has been draining the life from our people and the economy. The bridge I'm building would make his blockade on shipping useless. I thought it was only a matter of time before he sent ninja to kill me. So I went to Konoha to help."

"This is definitely above C-rank," Kakashi spoke, "Why did you lie to us?"

"Please," Tazuna begged, "our country is very poor. That was all we could afford." Tazuna seemed to sag, "I'll understand if you leave. I'll just be killed. My daughter will cry and cry over my death and my grandson will grow up hating Konoha, but it's alright."

Kakashi sighed and spoke to his genin, "What do you all think?"

"Didn't Naruto just say we don't do things halfway?" Sakura asked pointedly.

"Wow, that bit me in the ass faster than expected," Naruto replied. "But we're here already, might as well dethrone another tyrant. How many is that now?"

"Two," Sasuke replied.

"Wait, are we not counting that elder in Tsuki no Kuni?" Naruto asked.

"No, he was just incompetent not malicious," Sasuke replied.

"The two can be remarkably similar," Sakura added.

Tazuna looked on as the conversation took a turn. "Wait, does this mean you'll help?"

Sakura looked at him, "Yeah sure, we're pretty skilled. If there's anything we can't deal with, Kakashi can."

Sasuke spoke next, "We just had a few days off anyway. Besides, that would put this mission down as a failure."

Naruto shrugged, "What was I gonna do with an easy mission, sleep? Please." Nope Naruto didn't need sleep. Not at all. She felt fine. Really.

"Well, there you have it Tazuna-san. The mission goes forward," Kakashi said brightly.

A messenger hawk was sent to Konoha, and the restrained enemies were left tied up by the side of the road.

* * *

As the group traveled on, Kakashi sidled up to Naruto.

"You know who those two were, right?" the cycloptic jounin asked without looking up from his book.

"The 'Demon Brothers', Gouzu and Meizu," Naruto replied still looking ahead.

"Known associates?" Kakashi queried.

Naruto thought for a moment, "Damn."

"Who?"

"Zabuza Momochi."

"Hmm. I can deal with him. I'll trust you and the others to take out any back up he may have."

"Understood."

After having said his piece, Kakashi drifted to the back of the group to relay the information to Sasuke..

Behind Naruto Tazuna tried to make conversation with Sakura, "So, you guys are pretty good right?"

Sakura turned to face him as they walked, "We're alright, I suppose. Nowhere nearly as good as Kakashi-sensei though."

"Your sensei's really that good? he seemed caught off guard by those two guys from before," Tazuna said , confused.

Sakura scoffed, "He wasn't being serious. Kakashi is strong. I mean scary strong. If there is one thing you learn from our team, it should be this: Kakashi is a monster in combat. I almost pity anyone who crosses him."

"That good, huh?" Tazuna asked.

Sakura shrugged, "He's probably better, actually. I've never seen him go all out. He can take on all three of us without even looking like he's trying."

Kakashi's voice drifted up from the back of the group, "I'm glad one of my students thinks so highly of me, Sakura-chan."

"Sakura spoke again, "Ears like a bat, too."

"What was that?"

"I said you don't like hats," Sakura said turning back to Kakashi.

"Mmhmm."

Sakura turned to Tazuna and nodded seriously.

He was starting to feel better about the team that had taken on the mission. The only one he didn't know about was the blonde girl. The other two seemed to take direction from her, but he had yet to see her fight.

If he was lucky, he wouldn't have to.

* * *

Back in Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen stared hard at the unassuming scroll on his desk, which was currently closed.

He had received it from a pale-faced Naruto just before she left the village. The contents were dire, to say the least.

The aging Sandaime stood from his desk and walked to the window overlooking the sprawl of Konoha. He idly puffed his pipe as he watched the civilians scurry to a fro on the ground. He spotted several of his shinobi jumping agilely across the rooftops.

If half the things lain out in that scroll were true, Konoha would need to be and appear to be very strong in the coming years.

The upcoming Chunin Exams, being hosted in Tetsu no Kuni would be full of ringers from every village. This would mark the first time the reclusive Samurai of the Land of Iron opened its doors to such a large event. It was spurred by a series of recently harsh winters in the frozen country. Harsh enough, it seemed, to cause the isolationist nation to actively reach out to its neighbors.

Whichever village put on the best showing would gain quite a bit more prestige than eams in the previous years.

At the end of the Third Shinobi World War, Konoha had taken the opportunity its victory provided to push back the age of graduation by three years. The reasoning was that the other nations would be very unlikely to strike at Konoha just after a large scale conflict that Konoha had come out of in good shape, compared to the other hidden villages anyway.

The other villages had followed suit, opting to take advantage of the three years Konoha would have no fresh troops to raise the bar for their own shinobi. The continent wide result was that there were genin exiting the academy with a significantly higher level of skill than they would have had previously.

Thankfully the first new batch of genin had graduated just before the attack by the Kyuubi some sixteen years ago.

Konoha had strong genin teams, doubly so since many of last year's graduates had been the children of clan heads. Children, who could now be classified as much more than rookies. He wasn't sure that would be enough. If the other kage were as smart as he perceived, then they would have held back skilled shinobi from early promotion in order to give themselves powerhouse genin to sweep the national exams.

He would have to hope that his genin were up to the task.

* * *

To enter into Nami no Kuni, the team took a boat that crossed underneath the bridge that, if completed, would lead the land out from under the tyrannical rule of Gato. Despite having been to many parts of the Elemental Continents, the genin were suitably awed by the effort that went into constructing the massive pathway. Along the way to the shore, the group had to maintain silence in the mist that clung to the water like a blanket. Alerting any of Gato's patrols could spell disaster for the civilians aboard the boat.

To prevent that, several of Naruto's kage bunshin crept through the water walking over it as if it were solid ground. Tazuna nearly fell out the boat when the dopplegangers appeared in small puffs of smoke.

Eventually, the small group landed on the shore and set off for Tazuna's home. As they walked down the path, Naruto extended her arm to launch a kuani off into the brush. A rabbit darted out from the bushes and bolted across the road.

Something was off.

"That rabbit was white," Sasuke pointed out.

"Down!", Kakashi barked.

Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke dove for cover, while Sakura dragged Tazuna down with her. They felt the displaced air from the massive sword that had been thrown just over their heads to impact into a nearby tree. The team quickly got back on their feet to see a man dressed in light blue striped pants, no shirt and camouflage arm and legs warmers. He had bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face and had his headband set sideways on his head.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A bunch of children playing ninja? And Hatake Kakashi. My lucky day.", the attacker spoke.

"Zabuza Momochi, A-rank missing nin from Kirigakure no Sato, former member of the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri, wanted for the attempted assassination of the Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura, known associates; the 'Demon Brothers', and possessing a bounty larger than what I'll make in a year. Did I miss anything?" Naruto spoke her goggle-clad gaze fixed on Zabuza.

"Hmm," Zabuza hummed turning his attention to Naruto, "Someone did her homework. You should know that you're hopelessly outmatched here."

"I certainly am," Naruto replied frankly."But," she said gesturing to Kakashi, "he's not."

"Since my cute student stole the 'I know who you are' speech, I'll just have to go with the old standby. Leave now and this won't have to end in with your death," Kakashi spoke, uncovering his Sharingan eye.

"The Sharingan already? It would certainly be a testament to my skill if I were to kill you, Sharingan Kakashi." Zabuza idly cracked his neck, "Still, this whole thing can go away if you just hand over the old man," Zabuza replied.

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen," Kakashi spoke calmly.

"Very well then, Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu (Water Release: Hidden Mist)." With that, the entire field was filled with a dense, reducing visibility to zero. The gathered ninja felt a cold chill settle into their bones despite the normally mild climate.

"This guy is out of our league," Naruto said quietly, "Stay back and guard Tazuna."

The younger members of Team Seven moved into a triangular position around the terrified bridgebuilder.A calm voice sounded through the mist, "There are eight points... larynx, spine, lungs, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart. So many to choose."

With a blur a near invisible blue of motion, Zabuza opted to bypass Kakashi entirely. He swung his blade in a deadly horizontal arc, aiming to bifurcate the bridge builder and his young bodyguards.

The swordsman watched his tool of death near the talkative blonde just before she was enshrouded by a puff of smoke.

CLANG.

Zabuza's gargantuan blade was stopped just short of its target.

As the smoke cleared, Zabuza raised a barely-existent eyebrow. "Well, that's new," the missing nin commented on the offending blockage.

Before him sat a large rectangular shield that came to a sharp point at its bottom. The bottom had been shoved slightly into the ground to help compensate for the massive force behind Zabuza's swing. It was entirely unremarkable save for its dark grey color, the same color as a standard kunai.

From behind her revealed masterwork Naruto smiled thinly as she strained to hold back the Demon of the Mist's absurd strength. "Gah, how the hell do you swing that hard?"

"Actually-," whatever witty comment Zabuza had planned was cut off as he deftly dodged a brutal kick from Kakashi. The former mist jounin slipped back into his to avoid a follow up stab from the silver-haired legend.

Nearly a year ago Kakashi would have had serious trouble dealing with such a skilled practitioner of kirigakure no jutsu, but in his time leading Fast Response he had dealt with more than a handful of mist ninja who had taken on the life of a missing nin to avoid the civil war that even now raged in Mizu no Kuni.

As a result, Kakashi had taken a cue from his ninken and learned to effectively channel chakra to improve his hearing without blowing out his eardrums.

The Konoha jounin, confident yet wary, crept into the misty battleground to hunt the hunter.

* * *

Meanwhile, the genin maintained their careful positioning around the frightened Tazuna.

Naruto was not fond of waiting around a battlefield doing nothing. Why would she be? She had yet to find a situation where she was unable to do some measure of good using her clones and stealth to assert battlefield control. Besides, Zabuza would have his hands full with Kakashi, leaving Naruto to creep around and lay a few traps. Or so she hoped.

Without a word, Naruto created a single clone to take her place as she too skulked off into the mist.

Sakura turned to her male counterpart, "You ever feel left out when things like this happen?"

"Nope."

"Ass."

"Hn."

* * *

Zabuza felt entirely at home in his choice of battlefield. He had dictated the pace of combat the entire fight. Even now, he crept up on Kakashi, who foolishly believed he could find Zabuza in his own technique. The notion was laughable at best and now the silver-haired shinobi would pay for his hubris.

With a smooth diagonal slash, Zabuza cut through Kakashi from shoulder to hip. His victory was short lived as the masked shinobi burst into water.

Using a Mizu Bunshin against a mist ninja had to be some kind of dig against his skills.

Zabuza glanced around, carefully listening for footfalls. He took a thrown kunai to the neck for his lack of mobility. He too exploded into water.

Unfortunately for Kakshi, the real Zabuza had been carefully tracking his own bunshin and again cut from shoulder to hip.

And again, Kakashi burst into water.

Using Mizu Bunshin against a mist nin once was understandable, twice was a direct insult. Especially from a man like Kakashi.

Kakashi had used the moment it took Zabuza to bring his guard back up in order to burst from the mist and attack up close. The Konoha jounin let out a flurry of stabs from his kunai while Zabuza struggled to block the more nimble man with his cumbersome weapon. Zabuza attempted to kick away the offending ninja, but was smoothly dodged.

Zabuza's blade was very useful despite its odd dimensions. It was wide enough to block explosives, could overpower nearly any other type of melee weapon and could deliver brutal blows.

Due to leverage, Zabuza's blade hit with the most force at the very end. He style reflect that. He forced enemies to keep out of range from the massive sword. while he could swing to his heart's content with little worry towards being injured by taijutsu and most kenjutsu.

Unfortunately for him, Kakashi was well aware of that fact. The cycloptic shinobi had used the minor opening given to him when his clone was destroyed to get in incredibly close to the demon of the mist. At such a close range Zabuza was unable to use Kubukiribouchou to its full destructive potential. He was also forced to use his free hand to compensate for the faster, but weaker man's relentless assault.

In a flash of inspiration, Zabuza allowed Kakshi to land a painful kick, knocking the bandaged man toward the water. Using his massive blade he righted himself before launching his body to land on the surface of the water.

Kakashi wasn't nearly fool enough to engage Zabuza on top of the water. Mist was one thing, but an open body of water against a skilled Mist shinobi was foolhardy at best and suicidal at worst.

Zabuza took his moment of reprieve to dispel his technique, clearing away the mist. Zabuza knew that right now Kirigakure no Jutsu was doing little more than slowly draining his reserves. It was also obscuring his target, or in this case, targets.

His mission wasn't to kill Kakashi after all.

Zabuza momentarily leaned his blade on his foot to use it as cover while he flashed through eighteen hand seals ending on Tori.

He rose from behind his sword and announced his deadly technique.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall)"

From the water between Zabuza and the shore a massive wave rose and crashed down against the earth as it sped toward Kakashi and his genin team.

Kakashi, not one to be caught flat-footed, leapt onto a large tree to avoid the tidal wave.

* * *

Tazuna's eyes widened dramatically as the dozen meter high wave roared toward him. How was that even possible? He had heard of some of the things shinobi were capable of, but that was patently ridiculous.

In front of him Sakura sped through four of her own hand seals, "Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)."

True to its name, the technique produced a large wall in front of the three people and one clone. Sakura had pumped a great deal of her mediocre stores into the technique. The result was an impressive barricade that managed to hold back Zabuza's devastating technique using the natural advantage Doton held over Suiton.

Tazuna made an impressive impersonation of a fish out of water upon seeing the brown structure rise up before him.

He managed to tear his eyes away from the wall to look at Sakura. "Who are you people?"

Sakura panted from the chakra drain before giving him a sheepish smile, "No one important, really."

* * *

Zabuza was profoundly annoyed at the moment. Not only had one of his best ninjutsu been completely nullified, but Kakashi had taken the opportunity to start throwing earth techniques at him the way one would throw pebbles over a pond. The mist ninja was able to block the smaller ones with the flat of his blade and evade the larger ones, if only by the skin of his teeth.

How many techniques did this blasted man have?

Kakashi had stopped his onslaught because he wasn't getting any positive results from the barrage of Doton jutsu.

Zabuza took the momentary lull in the battle to catch his breath. "I see your reputation wasn't unearned."

Zabuza could swear Kakashi was smiling behind that mask of his. "Oh, I just try to get by."

False humility aside, Kakashi was rather impressed with the former Kiri shinobi. Zabuza had held up against his rapid assault with the dogged determination he would expect from one of the vaunted members of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure no Sato.

Still, he had to end this soon. Unfortunately he and Zabuza were in a stalemate. Neither was willing to go to the other's choice of battlefield to fight up close, nor were they able to hit each other with ranged ninjutsu. Moreover, due to Sakura's earth wall, Zabuza couldn't even take potshots at the genin.

Something needed to tip the balance.

As Zabuza started to speak, Kakashi got his wish.

"Kakashi, I-," was all Zabuza managed to get out before his sense of danger led him to make a dive to one side.

His move paid off as he just managed to avoid a nasty slash from Naruto, who had jumped out of the water in an attempt to slash him with a long knife the same color as her shield.

Zabuza recovered from his roll and attempted to cleave the nuisance in two, only to receive a water bullet to the gut, courtesy of Kakashi.

Naruto took that as her cue to exit, but not before a hasty Kawarimi with a bunshin to avoid retribution slash from a mostly recovered Zabuza. The blonde swiftly crossed the battlefield before scaling Sakura's wall with a tremendous leap.

Zabuza shook himself back together. Kakashi's technique had hurt, but the cycloptic jounin was unable to pull out the big guns for fear of hitting his subordinate. He steadied himself and gave Kakashi a hard look.

"I'm through-," Zabuza began, only to be interrupted once again, this time by Kakashi.

"With games." Kakashi finished for him.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes as we began going through the forty-four hand seals required for his next move. His eyes widened back open with shock as he saw Kakashi doing the same.

As Zabuza neared the end of chain of hand seals at a breakneck pace, he got one last surprise from Naruto.

The very water he stood on erupted, as a dozen explosive notes threw him bodily through the air. Zabuza idly wondered if this was what it was like to fly. He terminated that train of thought as he neared the ground.

He managed to avoid the brunt of the explosive force, but still found much of his body covered in nasty first and second degree burns. In addition to that, his sense of balance had been scrambled by the concussive force of the blast

He looked up just in time to see Kakashi land on his final hand seal. "Suiton: Suiryūdan (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet)."

Zabuza could only stare as the yellow eyed water beast crashed into him causing him to smash through bush and branch alike as he was flung like a rag doll.

Kakashi spoke as he walked toward Zabuza, "You could have avoided all of this."

Zabuza scowled as he futilely tried to move his arms and legs, "I don't expect you to understand Kakashi, everything I've done has been to take my home back from that monster."

Kakashi stopped his approach and casually raised an eyebrow, "And how was playing assassin for a man like Gato going to save Kiri?"

Zabuza stared defiantly back at Kakashi, "I needed funds to stage another attack on the Yondaime."

Kakashi nodded slowly, "I won't tell you I understand the way you feel. I don't, and it would be an insult to you to imply otherwise."

Zabuza gave the tiniest nod of acknowledgement. He noticed the genin a few dozen meters behind Kakashi, carefully watching him. He could barely see the bridge builder hiding behind the blonde girl's shield..

Kakashi began speaking again, "I can understand your reasoning, however. If Konoha were in a similar position I'd take drastic measures myself. But, you would doom Nami no Kuni in the process of attempting to save Mizu. I'm afraid I can't allow that."

Kakashi began walking again, "It's unfortunate that we met under these conditions, Zabuza. I'm afraid this ends here." Kakashi drew a kunai to throw at the downed man.

He was beaten to the punch as a trio of senbon flew into the side of Zabuza's neck, making the proud shinobi go completely limp.

A figure appeared next to the seemingly dead Zabuza. The figure wore a olive green pinstripe outfit with a turtleneck color underneath a blue-green haori alongside a pair of brown sandals. Over the figures face sat the mask of a Kiri hunter nin.

The figure checked over Zabuza's body before turning to the quartet. "I thank you for your assistance, I have been tracking Zabuza for several weeks. I did not believe I would get such an opportunity to bring him down. Again I thank you."

Kakashi gave his usual eye-smile before replying, "It was not trouble at all."

The hunter nin nodded, ignoring Kakashi's blatant lie. With a few deft movements the hunter picked up the body of Zabuza as well as his legendary blade before disappearing.

Kakashi idly watched the spot Zabuza's body had previously occupied as his genin came up behind him. With a sigh he covered his implanted Sharingan.

"He's not dead," Sasuke announced calmly. "That hunter nin was a fake."

Kakashi turned to face them, ignoring Tazuna's shout of disbelief. "I know."

"Why did you let them go then?" Sakura asked genuinely curious.

Kakashi shrugged as he led the group back onto the road. "Zabuza wants to win the civil war in Kirigakure. While I don't agree with his methods, I do think it would be best for Konoha if the rebellion in Kiri were a success. I was given a convenient chance to not kill a sizeable asset for that rebellion. I took it."

"He may come back," Naruto pointed out.

"True," Kakashi nodded, "but, he knows I can beat him, and he barely knows what you three are capable of. He might try for round two, but it's much more likely he'll take the opportunity to cut his losses." Kakashi broke out into a wide grin behind his mask. It was time to move on to brighter subjects. "Now, Tazuna how far are we from your home? I'm famished."

* * *

**A/N: Yes, I continue to exist. I'd offer a good reason for not putting this up sooner, but I think I'll save that for when I really need it.**

**For those of you who don't know, this is a follow up to a one-shot I posted some seven months ago. It's called Midnight Raid on Akatou. I wouldn't say the previous story is required reading for this, but some things from that will carry over into this. If your interested in some back story for the opening of this chapter or you want to read about Naruto tearing up a renown Iwa fortress, check it out.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Expect more in the not too distant future.**

**Catch you later.**

**- The Interrupter.**


	2. Chapter 2: Weapon of Choice

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Kenchi618 would rip out my still-beating heart and take the rights from me.**

Chapter 2: Weapon of Choice

Tsunami had been reading a book when a knock on the door sounded through the quiet home. Her son, Inari, had been alone upstairs as he often was, leaving her to answer the door.

As she did she was greeted by the sight of her smiling father and a foursome of people, shinobi, she surmised by the trademark metal plates they wore, behind him. There was a taller man, who seemed to be in charge, along with a serious young man with black hair, a girl with pink hair and a polite smile, and a cheerful blonde girl with blue eyes and whisker markings on her face.

"Hello dear, how is everything?" her father asked cheerfully.

Tsunami blinked before realizing how long she had been standing there silently. "Oh my! I'm so sorry. Please come in, make yourselves at home," Tsunami managed blushing lightly.

The apparent leader of her father's bodyguards seemed to smile behind his mask as he spoke, "Thank you for your hospitality Miss-"

"Tsunami," she replied quickly, "dinner will be ready in half an hour."

"Thank you again, Miss Tsunami. I'm Hatake Kakashi. These three are my students; Uchiha Sasuke-,"

The black-haired boy nodded slightly.

"Haruno Sakura-,"

"Nice to meet you," the pink haired girl replied with a small wave.

"-and Uzumaki Naruto."

"We're here to help," the blonde girl said, before smiling so wide her eyes were forced shut. Her whiskers curled upward as she as well.

Tsunami found the overall effect to be adorable. She idly wondered if Naruto would purr if she petted her head.

Tsunami snapped out of her musings and bid the shinobi team inside, "Please come in. There are rooms ready upstairs for you. I can't thank you enough for protecting my father. I hope he hasn't been much trouble."

Team Seven entered the house and headed up the stairs.

"About that, dear," Tazuna spoke nervously, "we ran into a little trouble on the way here-."

Tsunami could only gasp in reply.

"But," Tazuna was quick to add on, "my super strong bodyguards took care of it." Tazuna started to get his bluster back after that comment, "You should have seen it, my dear, the jounin summoned this huge dragon made of water, and the pink girl made a giant wall of earth!"

* * *

Sakura, who hadn't quite yet reached the top of the stairs, wasn't sure whether to be grateful for the praise or annoyed at being referred to as 'pink girl'. She settled for a mixture of the two as the team entered one of the rooms meant for them.

The four made themselves comfortable in the modest room. Sakura found a seat on sleeping roll. Naruto opted to sit with one leg stretched out on the windowsill on the windowsill. Kakashi leaned against the doorframe, while Sasuke simply stood by the wall. The seemingly random arrangement left no blind spots in the room.

"So how do we want to handle this?" It was Naruto who spoke first. "Tazuna said the bridge will take at least a week to finish up. In the meantime, Gato's free to take potshots at us."

"I doubt he has anyone as skilled as Zabuza," Kakashi supplied.

"And then there's Zabuza to worry about," Sasuke interjected, "Who knows if he'll be back."

"Lets assume the worst," Kakashi said, "Say Zabuza shows up just as the bridge finishes. He won't be back any sooner with those injuries. Unless his hunter nin is one hell of a medic. If Zabuza shows back up I'll deal with him. You three," Kakashi said with a small hand gesture, "will deal with his accomplice."

"Any word on the Demon Brothers?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi shook his head, "I sent a summon to tell Konoha to pick them up. They may get away, but they were barely a threat with their weapons. I doubt they'll be a factor without them."

"That's assuming they got away," Naruto said.

"Worst case scenario, remember?" Sasuke replied casually.

"Right," Naruto waved him off, "So assuming Zabuza is fresh out of backup, we can take him on. The question is what to do about Gato, if anything."

Sakura gave Naruto a stare from her position on the floor, "You're telling me you came this far and don't want to take out Gato?"

Naruto shook her head, "No, just checking how the room feels about it."

"I'm in." Sasuke said.

"It wouldn't seem right to leave this place with Gato still causing problems," Sakura said thoughtfully.

"Killing Gato isn't part of the mission," Kakashi chided.

"Our mission is to keep Tazuna safe. Gato represents a threat to him. Killing Gato is not only falls into the bounds of the mission, it's proactive," Sasuke said, easily rationalizing something the team wanted to do anyway.

"I'll co-sign on that backward logic," Naruto said, standing back up. "We're decided then?" she asked looking directly at Kakashi.

"Sure," the cycloptic jounin replied with his signature eyes-smile. "I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were in for."

There was a long silence in the room, followed by Naruto bursting into laughter. Sakura joined her, and even Sasuke smiled slightly. Kakashi just smiled.

"Dinner's ready!" Tsunami's voice rang from downstairs.

Kakashi straightened up, "We'll discuss the specifics over dinner."

* * *

Team Seven was introduced to Tsunami's son at dinner. He was an angry boy of about thirteen, who wore a striped bucket hat over a tan shirt and green overalls. Tsunami had gently explained why after the boy had refused to speak. It seemed the boy had lost his father figure to Gato some years ago and couldn't get over that fact.

Tragic as it was, Team Seven was busy discussing how best to deal with Gato.

"It'd be too convenient to ask for him to have some grandiose mannor I could just blow to hell, wouldn't it?" Naruto asked over her rice dish.

"Language," Tsunami said sternly.

Naruto shrunk back a little at that, "Sorry."

Tsunami found herself unable to stay mad at the remorseful blonde girl. She was just too damn cute. It was actually a little maddening for the dark haired woman.

"We need more information to go on," Sakura said. "We haven't seen nearly enough of the country to get a good picture of the situation."

Kakashi sighed, Naruto, send some clones into town tomorrow. We'll see what they can dig up. In the meantime, Tsunami-san?"

The woman perked up at the mention of her name, "Yes, Hatake-san?"

Kakashi pouted behind his mask, "Please, Tsunami-san, call me Kakashi. Hatake makes me feel old.

"You are old," Sasuke said flatly.

"Anyway, Kakashi spoke a little louder than necessary, "is there anything you can tell about the situation here? The names of Gato's businesses, where his boats are, anything like that?

Tsunami thought for a moment, "I'm afraid I can't help. I don't really go into town often. Sorry, Kakashi-san, I wish I could be more helpful."

"You've done more than enough. Thank you," Kakashi said, smiling brightly to cheer the housewife up.

Sasuke folded his hands under his chin with his eyes closed. "Scum like Gato won't show up unless he thinks he has the advantage, or he's been backed into a corner."

"We can do that by cutting off his funds," Sakura added.

"We burn his boats, rob his businesses, terrorize his men, and destroy his supplies," Naruto continued.

"He will try to take back control with a show of force in a very public setting. He'll take the rest of his men to the bridge," Kakashi said.

"And that's his ass," Naruto cut in, only to receive a glare from Tsunami.

Sheesh, she was a capable, skilled, kunoichi. How did this friendly housewife intimidate her. Maybe it was the way she held her ladle like a club.

Sakura made a whipping noise at Naruto's expense.

"Oh, fu-," Naruto shut her mouth so quickly there was an audible click.

Was Tsunami pissed?

Naruto looked over at her.

Nope. In fact, she seemed pleased that Naruto actively caught herself.

Yep, it was definitely the ladle.

* * *

The next day, Kakashi led his pseudo-genin into the woods outside Tazuna's home.

"Now team," Kakashi stood in the middle of a clearing surrounded by tall trees, "I'm going to teach you to climb trees without using your hands."

He swiftly dodged a punch from Sakura, a small fireball from Sasuke, and a single thrown kunai from Naruto.

The kunai Naruto had thrown had stuck into a tree far behind Kakashi.

"It was a joke," Kakashi deadpanned.

There was a low boom as the tree started falling to the ground. The three genin and one jounin jumped away from the path of the falling lumber.

"What the hell?" Sasuke said staring at Naruto.

"Hmm," Naruto stared at the fallen tree, "I thought I used a regular explosive tag."

"What was that, then?", Sakura said as she hopped down next to Naruto.

"A modified note tag I used for Akatou. It doesn't have much range or fire, but it packs a ton of force," Naruto replied, "I call them concussive tags."

Kakashi, who had taken a grand total of two steps out of the path of the tree, idly poked a branch just a few inches from his uncovered toes. "Seems useful. That doesn't explain why you threw an explosive note at your sensei. You can get in trouble for that, you know?"

"Find me one person who would prosecute me for trying to get out of the tree walking exercise," Naruto demanded.

Kakashi just smiled, "I think my big-headed genin put the 'cute' in prosecute."

"...," Sasuke said.

"...," Sakura said.

"...," Naruto said.

"...Right, forget I said anything," Kakashi said seriously.

"Said what Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked innocently.

"Good girl."

* * *

Over the course of the week things began to go very poorly for the tyrant of Nami no Kuni.

Naruto's clones, split up into pairs and henged to look like ordinary civilians, had traveled all over the area. They looked for anything of importance and made careful inquiries around town about Gato and his forces. After three days of reconnaissance and planning Team Seven began to make their moves.

* * *

(With Team Seven Evening- Four Days to Bridge Completion)

Sutedi-Te (Steady Hand), was a beautiful bar located in central Nami no Kuni. Aside from being an awful play on words, it was a clever investment made by Gato. While not the only bar in the area, Sutedi-Te had the best selection, seating and atmosphere. It also let Gato's mercenaries put their weekly pay right back into Gato's coffers.

On the outside it was a grand two-story building, far larger than the dilapidated structures around it. With strong lines and painted a bright primary blue, it was easy to find sober or drunk. Inside was a warm atmosphere with smooth mahogany floors, expensive oak tables, and a grand cherry wood bar counter. There were Mirrors placed behind expensive bottles of alcohol on the wall behind the counter. Dim lighting gave the entire area a warm feel.

It was all very posh and made specifically to let the citizens of Nami no Kuni know that were below Gato and his men.

This actually made things rather easy for Team Seven. There were no innocent bystanders to worry about.

The sturdy wooden table snapped in half as a 190 lb (86 kg) man had his head and torso bashed into for the eighth time that night. The table had fared far better than the man who had broken it

The most popular bar in Nami was a wreck. Blissfully unconscious bodies were sprawled over tables, chairs, and booths. One man had had was slumped against a pool table with an eight ball jammed in his mouth. Most of the oaken tables were overturned. The mahogany floors had deeps scars and scorch marks. And the cherry wood bar was in several pieces all around the ground floor. The expensive bottles of alcohol had been shattered over the heads of many of the bar's patrons.

Broken glass was everywhere.

Sakura dusted off her hands with an aura of satisfaction about her.

Naruto who was sitting on a heap of bodies surveyed the carnage as her clones cleared out anyone still conscious. "I think you may have may have gone a bit overboard with that guy, Sakura-chan. Some people would consider it a compliment."

Sakura put her bloodied hands on her hips as she faced her fellow kunoichi, "He was trying to cop a feel the entire time," Sakura said emphatically. "Besides, you're one to talk," Sakura said gesturing to a black and purple mess of a man still being kicked in the gut by a clone. "What did he call you? Whisker Tits?"

Naruto merely shrugged.

A good deal of Gato's standing forces had been in the bar when Team Seven literally knocked the door off its hinges. Sakura politely asked them to leave the service of Gato. When she received silence with a few low chuckles. She punched a nearby man into a table of his compatriots and asked again. That had led to the brawl that left Team Seven relatively unscathed and roughly a fifth of Gato's forces incapacitated.

It wasn't particularly difficult. The men were poorly trained, if at all. Moreover, they were up against a team with techniques and abilities particularly well suited to combat against multiple foes. Between Sasuke's Katon, Sakura's Doton, and Naruto's explosives, they barely had a chance.

Surprisingly the building had held up against the force thrown around in it.

Anyone who managed to lift themselves off the ground the next day wouldn't be in any kind of fighting shape for a good long while. Gato's forces would be stretched farther and morale would be at an all time low.

A short, barking laugh drew the attention of the two kunoichi toward the stairs.

Sasuke, who had opted to clear out the second floor, instead of staying around his clearly enraged teammates when the fighting broke out, nimbly jumped down jagged hunk of wood that used to be an impressive staircase. He was suppressing a smirk as he looked at Naruto.

"Don't you fucking dare, teme."

Sasuke let the smirk he had been hiding slip, "Oh, I won't... Whisker Tits."

"I will break you," Naruto said slowly.

On second thought, the building might not hold up much longer.

* * *

(With Sasuke and Sakura- Three Days to Bridge Completion)

Sasuke and Sakura had wandering through town discreetly giving out money and valuables take from the thugs in Sutedi-Te. They weren't doing anything overt, a shop owner may find a seemingly misplaced stack of coins on his counter as they passed by, a child might find a coin atop their shaggy head. A man with his shoulders slak may feel a strange lump in his pocket and find it to be an expensive watch. A woman, keeping her head low to avoid attention, would sometimes find valuable jewelry in the stitched pocket of her dress.

The two walked along continuing to quietly return some of the wealth of Nami no Kuni.

Bit by bit Nami was getting its country back.

It certainly helped that Gato's thugs seemed deathly afraid of the two strange teenagers wandering about.

* * *

That night, Team Seven met back up in Tazuna's humble home, again over dinner. The mood was lighter than it had been in previous days. Again, Team Seven discussed the situation over dinner.

Naruto stretched out like a cat at the dinner table. "Gato's got to be feeling the pressure at this point. One more good push outta do it."

Kakashi nodded, "A few of Gato's men made an attempt on the bridge today, they're getting restless."

Inari, who hadn't said a word to any of them during the duration of their stay, finally had enough. "Who do you think you are?" the preteen spoke lowly. "Gato's going to kill you all. None of this even matters."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the outburst.

Inari stood and slammed his hands on the table, "None of you have any idea what it's like. You can't imagine what going on here. Do you think you're heroes or something?" He leveled a hateful glare at the assembled shinobi. "There aren't any heroes."

"You should really shut up,kid," Naruto spoke calmly.

Inari's eyes snapped to Naruto, who's bangs shaded her eyes. "What do you know about it?"

"I know you've got a family here that cares about you. I also know that if Gato kills us, your grandfather's next."

Inari's eyes widened at that. He fearfully looked to where Tazuna was seated, only to receive a grave nod.

"Kid, you've got no idea what suffering is. How many times have you ever been into town? You've got a lot more than most around here." Naruto looked up at Inari calmly. "And what do you do with that? You sit here and hide from the world. Well you go ahead and hide. Go on. Because, if you won't be what this country need, then stay the hell out of the way."

Inari, tears threatening to form in his eyes, ran from the room.

Tsunami looked on after him and sighed, "He needed to hear that, I'm afraid." She looked back at the table to find a certain blond girl missing. "Where did Naruto go?"

A tree crashed somewhere outside. Oh, that's where she went.

* * *

A tree, at least fifty years old, fell to the forest floor with a resounding crash. Naruto hefted her dull gray axe onto her shoulder, where it slowly shifted back into a shield, its standard form.

She had slipped away from the house just after speaking, skulking out into the night alone.

Her shield slipped into two smaller axes. She began savagely slashing into the trunk of another tree. Sure, she could have used explosives to get the same effect, but it didn't help her take out her aggression as much as it should have. It wasn't that Naruto didn't like explosions, there were a staple of her fighting style, it just wasn't as satisfying to push a little chakra into a sealing array she made days before. Besides they'd be needed later.

That kid pissed her off to no end. He woe is me mentality was a smack to the face to Naruto, who had to take what little she had. Kakashi had certainly been a boon after graduation, but things weren't always that well off.

There had been a time when she could only rely on herself. It worked for a long while too. That was until the Genin Exam, though.

The axes stripped bark off the tree, before turning into a hammer too large for Naruto to wield properly. Damn, it felt satisfying when she connected with it, though.

Her shield, her only original project she viewed as a masterpiece, could become anything she could work the shape and mechanics out of.

She'd never admit it out loud, but her taijutsu wasn't up to snuff compared to her fuuinjutsu. To be fair none of her other skills were, but her taijutsu was the worst. She was fast as hell, but that could only get her so far. When she began work on her shield, she had needed something to make her capable of close range combat. Clones were great and all, but she never had proper training in any style of taijutsu. She couldn't stand the rigid forms of most kenjutsu styles. There wasn't enough room for improvisation.

So she decided to apply her solid henge to a weapon.

It took nearly a year to get right. Hell, she wasn't sure if it _was _right. There wasn't a seal master on hand in Konoha to help her out. The Hokage was always busy and his student Jiraiya was never in the village. There were a lot of seal arrays she wasn't sure were necessary, including complete maps of her chakra and nervous systems. Sakura had a hell of a time helping her with that.

If there was one thing Naruto was good at, it was sealing. Her ninjutsu, aside from Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, were all support techniques. Her genjutsu didn't even exist. Fuuinjutsu came easily for her.

It certainly helped that the Shinobi Library didn't guard the scrolls on sealing nearly as well as the three most popular ninja arts.

That being said, she had no idea where she stacked up in the ranks of fuuinjutsu users.

The hammer turned to two wicked looking pickaxes as Naruto stomped into the woods to find a rock to crack.

Maybe she'd call a few clones out to fight.

* * *

She didn't know when she fell asleep. She had avoided it for days. Had her team looked under the goggles she wore they would have seen dark rings around her eyes. She was sure Kakashi knew. He always seemed to know.

She had to sleep sometime, though, and her rampage on the innocent plant life of Nami no Kuni had taken what little energy she had left.

It was time to face down her issues, again.

The sewer looked like it always did; dark, damp, and generally unpleasant. Despite her best efforts, she had been unable to change these facts.

She trudged along down the only real 'road' the network of tunnels that made up her mind.

The massive gates that held back the Kyuubi came into view. **"It seems my container has decided to grace me with her presence once more."**

Naruto was relatively certain the Kyuubi had invented sarcasm, it used it so often.

"We both know this isn't going to go away, so let"s get on with it." Naruto plopped down into the water just outside of the reach of the Kyuubi's claws.

"**Oh, you've finally come to accept that you're just like me?"**

"Not even close."

"**Your as fond of wanton destruction as I am."**

"Stop, you're making me blush," Naruto deadpanned, trying to keep her cool.

"**You certainly act savage, if this forest is any indication."**

"You know, Kyuubi, it doesn't matter what you say, I still like you." Now she was just trying to get under its skin.. or tails.

"**You didn't seem to have any qualms killing dozens to get what you want."** The massive demon cocked its head to the side behind its cage. **"That seems like something I'd do."**

"That was different," Naruto countered.

"**How,"** the great beast challenged.

"It was for them!" Naruto shouted back, previous notion of keeping calm forgotten.

Her eyes widened.

That was why. Because it was for Sakura and Sasuke, her friends, her precious people, the ones who dragged her out of her loner mentality.

It was that simple then.

Naruto smiled at one of, if not the most, powerful creatures in existence. "For my friends, I'd kill a thousand shinobi, I don't care what village they're from. They're worth it. Hell,those precious to me are worth even more." Naruto turned and began walking away from the chakra demon, purely a symbolic gesture, as she could just will herself out of her mind.

The Kyuubi said nothing. It had lost this round.

"You know," Naruto said looking over her shoulder at her prisoner, "if we didn't fight so much, you'd probably be one of those people too."

With that, Naruto faded away.

The Kyuubi snorted at the idea, it'd be far better to have control.

it idly swished its tails around in contemplation. Maybe, that was something to think on.

Maybe.

* * *

Naruto, with her back to the rough bark of a tree in the middle of the woods, had the best sleep she'd had in well over a week.

* * *

Several hours later she awoke to a clone smacking her shoulder. She glared balefully at the offending bunshin, before it dispelled, relaying the whereabouts of someone else in her little section of the woods.

The source of the disturbance came into view. It was a graceful looking young woman, about her age, in a pink kimono with a flower basket over one arm. Upon seeing Naruto, her eyes widened in surprise.

Naruto figured it was because she hadn't expected someone else to be in woods so early in the morning.

"Hello there," the girl said softly. "Are you a ninja?"

"Sure am," Naruto said, rising from her spot on the ground and stretching out her back, "from Konoha, actually. Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you."

The girl smiled at the greeting. "My name is Haku."

"Haku, eh, That's a nice name Haku-chan," Naruto said spiritedly, lifting her goggles to her forehead..

"Thank you," Haku tilted her head curiously "I thought ninja wore headbands."

Naruto realized she was referring to her hitai-ate that wrapped snugly around her neck like a choker. "Yeah, most do. However, I know a lot more ninja lose their lives to cut throats than to cracked foreheads."

Haku winced at the imagery.

"Sorry, Haku-chan," Naruto said sheepishly, "Why are you out here so early?"

"Oh," someone close to me was hurt, "The woods around here have excellent medicinal herbs."

"Well let me help," Naruto said earnestly, "It's the least I could do for grossing you out."

"Thank you, I appreciate your help," Haku said with another smile.

Haku led Naruto all around the woods, picking various plants and herbs. They talked idly about small matters. Naruto even told Haku a revised tale or two about some of her missions. Haku seemed genuinely interested in the exploits of a shinobi. Naruto guessed what seemed ordinary to a ninja must be impressive to a civilian like Haku.

Naruto noted that many of the plants Haku chose were the same as ones Sakura used. It seemed this girl knew a good deal about medicine. Some were useful for treating burns, others helped with bruises. They even found a few uncommon herbs used for a painkiller.

Mid-morning came and Haku's basket was filled to the brim.

"Again, thank you for all your assistance," Haku said with a bow, "I believe I have everything I need."

"Glad I could help," Naruto said while scratching the back of her head, seemingly uncomfortable with someone bowing to her.

Haku rose back up and gave Naruto a long look, "Before I go, I have to ask, what do you think makes a person strong."

Naruto rubbed her chin before answering, "If you had asked me that yesterday, I don't know that I would have had an answer for you. Now, I know that a person is strongest when they are protecting something that care deeply about."

Naruto voice was filled with a conviction that made Haku deeply sad. This girl was an enemy, she was in the way of Zabuza's ambition. That didn't lessen the fact that Naruto ideals lined up with her own.

Maybe she could just knock her out when the time came.

For now, she just gave Naruto a genuine smile, "I agree. someone is strongest when protecting their precious people."

Haku turned to leave.

Naruto called out, "Goodbye, Haku-chan."

Haku turned her head, "Goodbye, Naruto-san." Haku fully turned to face Naruto. "Oh, I'm a boy, by the way."

Naruto gave her a blank stare. "No you're not, not with curves like that," she said gesturing to Haku's figure. "That may have fooled someone two or three years ago, but not now."

Haku blushed, either from embarrassment for being caught or from the compliment, "Sorry, it's just something I say to keep Gato's men at bay."

Naruto smiled, "Don't worry, no one around here works for Gato."

Haku just smiled shyly.

* * *

(With Clone Team One- Late Morning- Military Harbor- Two Days to Bridge Completion)

One set of intrepid doppelgangers were laid out on the crest of the hill overlooking a medium-sized harbor. The light from the steadily rising sun would blind anyone who happened to glance at the replicated observers.

The two clones had been there since the late afternoon of the previous day, cataloging everything that came through the only harbor in the area.

"-Nine, ten. There's ten smaller boats and three of the big transports." One clone said staring through a set of binoculars.

The other clone made careful notes on a notepad. "That makes eighteen assault craft and five transports in total. We've seen them all at least twice, so unless there's a few off schedule, that should be all."

"It won't really matter come tonight," The first clone replied. "Orders are to burn all of them."

"Except one of the transports," the second corrected, "and a couple of the little ones."

Gato would be left with just enough of a navy that he felt secure attacking the bridge. Too much and he could be problematic. Too few and he'd just cut and run.

Run right into the waiting arms of a kage bunshin team loaded down with explosive notes. But, it would be better if Gato confronted them head on, however. That way the citizens of Nami would actually see the tyrant fall, and the Konoha team could claim self-defense if someone were to call them out for killing a prominent business man.

It things went well maybe the shipyard would survive for the citizens to use.

And if it didn't... Well, they'd still have a nice new bridge to use.

* * *

(With Sasuke and Sakura- Midnight- Waters Around Nami no Kuni- Two Days To Bridge Completion)

The large transport cut an inelegant path through the black water. On its sides were two small assault craft that knifed through the water far more gracefully than their whale-like counterpart.

The three vessels from Gato's navy were making no attempt to hide their presence in the still night. Rather, they lit up the titular waves of the island nation.

The transport was hauling a fresh crop of fruits and vegetables from the poor country. Gato's forces commandeered the largest freshest crops to either eat themselves, or to sell to the less fertile lands around Nami at an obscene price.

This particular boat was on its last run for Gato. The assault craft were on their last run, period.

Creeping across the water was child's play for the duo of Konoha shinobi. They didn't even have to suppress their chakra signatures. The two trailed behind the smaller craft to hide the sounds of their steps in the wakes.

While the two could go in hurling jutsu and steel, there was some reason to maintain stealth; that giant boat was built with the stolen funds of the nation. It was only fair that it was given back. At least one anyway. Three of the four others would be destroyed and the fourth would be left to tempt Gato into a last gambit.

They may have to clear some bloodstains off this one.

Sasuke kept low as he swept up toward the back of the assault craft. Two of Naruto's clones shadowed him. Gato's goons were insultingly overconfident. They barely moved the large searchlight mounted on the front of the boat. Hopping aboard the backmost portion from the side was child's play.

There was a man smoking a cigarette facing the dark water opposite from the Uchiha. He was turned just slightly so as to reveal the profile of his face, lit by the slowly burning tobacco stick. Sasuke took two long strides and jammed a kunai into the base of his spine. The man's cigarette fell from his mouth into the churning waves below.

His body followed soon after.

Intelligence gathered by Naruto's clones at the harbor indicated that each assault craft had a crew of five. That left four more for Sasuke to clear out.

The boat had a simple design. It was an open deck a small island that led below via an opening on the front.. A large floodlight was mounted to the bow. There was one man on deck, steering the vessel with an ornate wheel just in front of the island,. another sailor was manning the light. Neither of them were aware of his presence. The raven-haired teen clung to the side of the island until he could see down the stairs that led belowdecks.

It was dark below. Good.

Sasuke swiftly palmed two kunai. Without another moment of hesitation, he flung the slim knives, one after another, at the unsuspecting crewmen on deck. the first knife dug deep into the back of the boat's pilot. The pilot looked down to see a sharp metal tip jutting out of his chest, where his heart should be. The sound of his body thumping against the deck caused the other sailor to turn around. His vision was quickly filled when a kunai lodged itself into his eye. The force staggered him back against the railing. A small turn, caused by the waves crashing against a boat with no pilot, sent his rapidly cooling body into the cold water below.

The clones sent along with the Uchiha avenger swiftly tossed the pilot overboard and took control of the wheel and floodlight. They couldn't fake being the crew for long, but it should be enough to keep the captain of the transport from sensing anything amiss.

Sasuke crept below to find the last two sailors asleep in their bunks. They were disposed of with two quick swipes over their throats.

Maybe Naruto had a point about covering her throat.

In any case, the men's corpses left a bloody mess. It would be annoying to clean later.

Conveniently, the boat and its contents would be a burning wreck just as soon as control of the transport was wrested away from its crew.

Sasuke returned topside to see Naruto's clones henged to look like an approximation of the men they replaced. It was difficult to do a proper copy mimicry of their features.

It was dark out after all.

Sasuke got a thumbs up from the clone steering the ship. He carefully dropped back onto the water. With a deft jump he feet clung to the side of the transport.

Sakura should be finished with her boat by now.

* * *

True to Sasuke's thinking, Sakura had finished up with her boat. She was a bit more efficient than her male teammate however.

She landed on the back of the boat, clones in tow. She then turned around and sweetly asked the clones to help clear out the crew. The clones gave her a wink and a smile, respectively. Naruto's clones were always willing to please.

The three cleared out the boat in no time.

Sometimes it was better to work smart, not hard. She was sure Sasuke had only used his handy pair of kage bunshin for cleanup.

Sakura just shook her head and chuckled as she clung to the side of the transport. Sasuke would never learn.

* * *

(With Naruto- Military Harbor- Midnight- One Day To Bridge Completion)

A pair of Naruto clones one more sat on the top of hill overlooking the harbor.

This time however, they were surrounded by twenty-two of their counterparts. Even the original, herself, was among their number. She was looking over a map of the seaport below that had been carefully made by the clones from this morning.

The entire port was nestled between two hills which gently sloped north, into the water below. A road, which led to the shipyard, snaked through the valley set between the hills. The port itself was pretty simple layout. Five large, deep, flooded spaces were set for the transports, two of which were empty. About two dozen smaller spaces had been set up for the smaller craft, those were about half full.

Around the inlets for the boats were a variety of buildings for service and repair. There was one massive warehouse on the east that was used to store the goods set to be exported. To the west was a series of decently sized shacks used for housing roughly a fourth of Gato's forces. The men would go into town and force restaurants to serve them meals. They used to go to Sutedi-te, but that was obviously no longer an auction.

Naruto rolled up the map silently and stowed in the equipment pouch across her lower back. "Squad One, slip around to the shoreline, tag those boats. Leave one transport standing, don't let them get onboard. I don't want anyone slipping away. When I give the signal, light the charges."

Six kage bunshin nodded in unison, before darting out of the area.

Naruto gestured to another half-dozen. "Squad Two,control the road, no one gets in or out."

The squad sped off to their designated task.

"Squad Three, target the housing, same orders as Squad One."

Naruto looked over the remaining six clones left on the hill. "You're with me, Squad Four. When the signal goes off, we come down this hill."

Now it was time to wait. Naruto settled in as the waning crescent lit the peaceful looking compound below.

* * *

(With Sasuke and Sakura- After Midnight- Transport)

Sasuke stuck his head ever so slightly above the deck of the transport. His dark hair was near invisible in the late night. The deck of the wooden vessel was bare of both life and fixtures. The back of the boat had a simple, large, windowed pilothouse from which the captain commanded the boat.

The shinobi felt a pair of eyes on him. His gaze locked onto a figure hanging on the deck on the opposite side. Amused green eyes stared back at him.

The eyes flicked to the right toward the pilothouse. Wordlessly the two Konoha shinobi ran sideways along the vessel until they were on the sides of the pilothouse.

On an unspoken cue, the duo crashed through the windows. As glass rained down all around the cabin, the five men managing the vessel spun around in confusion. Two went down from a vicious punch from and a deep stab wound from Sakura. Sasuke had fluidly cut down the crewman who had been closest to the window. With a simple twitch of his wrist, a shuriken embedded itself into the captain's throat.

The last crewman standing switched his gaze back and forth between the two monsters that had decimated the pilothouse. In a rare moment of clarity, he tried to throw himself out of the now destroyed window.

As he cleared the frame of the window, he felt a moment of elation at his escape. Then everything went dark.

"I win," Sasuke said with a triumphant smirk..

Sakura just shook her head, "Come on, we still need to deal with the ones below deck." She walked through the door leading to the compartments below.

Sasuke shrugged and headed down after her.

* * *

The first sign something was wrong came for the crew of the transport vessel, jokingly nicknamed the Seiuchi (Walrus), when a loud boom rocked the ship.

The first mate, who was playing poker with the rest of the crew, knocked over his chair as he bolted upright, "What the hell was that?"

Another boom knocked the contents of the table to the floor. The swinging overhead light went out as well.

"You're all in one place. That's convenient."

The first mate froze. The voice had come from directly behind him.

"I'll make this quick."

In the resounding chaos that came from a dozen men groping around in the dark, Sasuke cut through them like tissue paper.

* * *

Sakura sat calmly in captain's chair of the wrecked pilothouse, watching as the four kage bunshin that had accompanied them cleared away the bodies.

The quartet had blown away the assault craft after seeing their teammates break through the glass.

The medic of Team Seven raised an eyebrow as Sasuke stalked into view, specks of blood adorning his clothes.

"Done," the dark-eyed boy called.

Sakura rose from her seat and cracked her knuckles. "Let's go get the other ones, then." She glanced over to a Naruto clone wearing the captain's hat at a jaunty angle. "You got things here?"

The clone was trying to light a pipe it had produced from somewhere, the dead captain if she had to hazard a guess. "Aye," it said with a salty accent.

Sakura sighed and headed out back into the night.

At least the rest should go faster. This was the only one they had to keep in one piece.

* * *

(With Naruto- After Midnight- Military Harbor)

At 3:37 A.M., a bank of dark clouds rolled over the harbor, leaving the facility in darkness. The weather in Nami no Kuni changed often, so this wasn't seen as particularly odd.

The clouds hanging exclusively over the harbor, however, was. By the time anyone realized this it was far too late.

At 3:38 A.M., two of the three transports and all ten assault craft stationed at the harbor erupted into flames. The housing followed seconds later.

By the time the hundred men at the harbor realized what was happening, forty of their number were dead, half that number was wounded, and the remaining forty were woefully unprepared for what was to come.

Many men had stumbled their way to the middle of the compound to escape the unstable buildings and choking smoke. They carefully rallied around the port's commander, who was barking out orders while his leg was hastily bandaged. They numbered around twenty.

Naruto and her squad of six hung back in the shadows created by the unnatural clouds overhead. She lifted a carefully crafted bow in her hands.

It had been left at Tazuna's door; a gift from a grateful, but cautious citizen. Having a weapon was a capital crime under Gato's rule. While, arrows often traveled far too slowly to be useful in the life of a ninja, However they would do quite well against the unknowingly surrounded pen.

Besides, Naruto found the irony to so rich she wasn't sure she'd want breakfast.

With a smooth draw, she notched an arrow and let it loose. It shot squarely into the healthy leg of the Harbor commander, his knee, actually. His cry of anger and pain was cut off by the detonation of the tag wrapped around the arrow.

Naruto's clones charged into the disoriented crowd of thugs. Their dull gray blades cut them down in man ran as hard as he could from the ambush. An arrow struck him in the back of the thigh, sending him tumbling to the ground. He managed to push himself to his knees with a painful grunt. Another arrow struck him in the back. He stuck his arm behind him as if to pull it out. His strength left him and he fell heavily to the ground.

Naruto surveyed the burning harbor as her clones routed the rest of Gato's forces there. That was only organized attempt to fight back she had encountered. The rest were being hunted down in twos or threes. The injured would swiftly be put out of their misery.

She headed back toward Tazuna's home. If everything went well, night would fall only once more before Nami was free.

Now though, it was time to get some shut-eye.

* * *

Sakura crossed her arms with a huff as she and Sasuke walked on the water back towards Tazuna's house. "You make it a lot less interesting when you just set the boats on fire, Sasuke."

Sasuke just rolled his eyes as the two trudged along. Sakura was just mad that he had absolutely decimated her in number of boats sunk. It wasn't his fault her ninjutsu took longer to use over open water.

Sakura stuck her hands behind her head as the two stepped onto the shore, "Think Naruto's done?"

Sasuke pointed to the suspiciously bright orange section of the sky, "I'd say so."

* * *

Tsunami eyed the sooty blonde girl standing at the front door. Her two teammates stood behind her dripping water. "Busy?"

"Sorta," Naruto said with a wide smile. "Can we come in?"

Tsunami rolled her eyes, "You, go get a shower."

Naruto thanked her and headed inside.

Tsunami pointed at the two wet genin. "You two, dry off before you come in."

Sakura and Sasuke grumbled, but accepted towels from their host.

* * *

It was late in the night, the rest of her team had gone to bed.

Naruto, now dressed in a black tanktop and orange shorts, sat up on the roof, watching the quiet,dark woods.

Every stage had been completed. Gato would be furious when he found his navy in shambles. That would be the last straw. The littlest tyrant would pull together what forces he had left in order to take down the bridge.

Zabuza was still a factor, as well as his masked accomplice. She seriously doubted the elite swordsman would cut and run, especially if he thought things in Kiri were desperate.

She sighed, Kakashi could take on Zabuza, no doubt. It was his \back up she was worried about. They had next to no information on the masked shinobi. They used senbon and had some measure of speed and stealth, physical strength too, considering how they hefted up the jounin _and _his monstrous sword.

One way or another, things would be finished in around thirty-six hours or so.

Her musings were interrupted by the sound of quiet footsteps on the roof. She spotted Inari walking carefully across the sloped surface to sit next to her.

He looked out over the forest, looking like he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.

For a while, neither party spoke, simply watching over the gentle wilderness of Nami no Kuni. Eventually, Inari broke the silence. "Why? Why are you trying so hard?"

Naruto crossed her legs as she thought, "Because, someone has to. Gato has bred fear throughout this country. Spread it far enough to make the people question whether freedom is even worth the cost. If I can step in and stop that, I think I should." Naruto looked over and smiled at the bucket-hat wearing boy. "I guess what I'm trying to say is: people need heroes. Heroes inspire"

Inari looked at her with confused eyes, "What happens when heroes die?"

"That's even better," Naruto ignored Inari's startled look, "they become a symbol, something people can rally behind. When Gato killed Kaiza, he made himself a greater enemy than anyone else could have."

Inari furrowed his brow in thought, "What's so good about a symbol?"

"They aren't forgotten," Naruto said with a gentle smile. "Go to anyone in town and ask them about Kaiza. I guarantee none of them have a bad word to say about him."

Inari nodded along with her words, "He said that if you had something precious to you, you had to protect it with both arms." He lowered his head, clearly grieving over his lost father-figure.

It was Naruto's turn to nod. "He's right, and people will remember that in the back of their heads. What they need is someone to remind them of that, like what your grandpa.. It can't be me, or Sakura, or Sasuke, or Kakashi." Naruto gave Inari a sly smirk, "It could be you, you know."

Inari raised his head and looked at Naruto incredulously.

Naruto uncrossed her legs and stood up. "Think about it, alright."

Inari looked at Naruto questioningly, "Okay."

Naruto began to head back inside, only to be interrupted by Inari. "Hey," Naruto looked back over her shoulder at him. "are you a hero?" Inari asked.

"Depends who you ask," Naruto replied with a smirk.

Inari looked unsatisfied by that answer. "What if I ask you?"

Naruto blinked, "That's a very good question, Inari. Really good, actually."

Inari blushed under the praise.

"I don't think I know how to answer that. I'll get back to you on that."

* * *

Team Seven spent the last day before the predicted attack on the bridge, fixing up whatever small wounds they had picked up in their strikes against Gato's forces. The few workers, who had stayed to help, watched in wonderment as a seemingly endless supply of pretty blonde girls sped up the construction of the massive structure.

When he wasn't drinking off the clock, Tazuna was damn good at his job. He was barking out orders at his free labor while he went through dozens of blueprints for the nation-saving bridge. "You two, take that over there. You, careful with that cement!. You! Wait, you're fine, keep going."

Damn, he loved Konoha ninja.

* * *

Dinner that night was a calm affair. The charts and reports that had polluted Tsunami's table, while Team Seven planned its moves against Gato, were gone. Inari had finally come out of his long-lasting slump and was sending surreptitious glances at Naruto, who either didn't notice or didn't care. Probably the former, if her inhalation of the food before her was any indication.

Tazuna, who had been nursing a saucer of sake, looked over the gathered shinobi. "What happens now?"

Kakashi folded his book with a soft clap, "Tomorrow, Tazuna-san, you will finish the bridge."

"What about Gato or that Zabuza guy?" Tazuna asked.

"You let us deal with them," Kakashi said brightly. "Everything has gone in our favor so far."

Tazuna, like many citizen of Nami, had no idea of the full extent of the actions Team Seven had taken. "What do you mean? I know your genin have been taking off at night, but I thought they were training," Tazuna spoke, confused.

Kakashi gave him a small eye-smile, "My little students have just done a few things to goad Gato into attacking."

Tazuna's breath hitched, "You sure you can deal with him?"

"Of course Tazuna-san, Team Seven doesn't do anything halfway."

Tazuna still had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

The next day, the Team Seven along with Tazuna headed to the nearly finished bridge. Gray clouds hung heavily in the sky above. As they drew nearer to the massive structure, they noticed the distinct lack of noise. On closer examination, they found the bodies of the bridge workers- unconscious or otherwise littering the concrete.

The genin immediately snapped into a defensive formation around Tazuna when a heavy mist started to roll in. Naruto unsealed her shield and held it at the ready. Sakura pulled her elongated kunai into her waiting gloved hands. Sasuke held his hands close together, ready to start ninjutsu or block an attack.

Kakashi merely uncovered his donated eye and called out cheerfully into the dense, foggy, mist, "Ah Zabuza, I was wondering when you'd show up." Despite his friendly tone, the danger in his voice was as plain as day. "Back for another round?"

A deep voice echoed from the mist, "As much as I'd love to, I think things are going to go a little differently."

A dozen senbon flew out of the mist. Kakashi, being the elite jounin that he was, blocked them with a few deft movements of a kunai. Just as he finished, Zabuza came barreling from the side. He swung his massive sword in an attempt to end the fight early.

Kakashi easily leaned out of the way and was caught off guard, when, instead of following through on his swing, Zabuza let go of his blade sending it into the ground. Zabuza took Kakashi's moment of recovery to deliver a crushing kick that sent the jounin flying onto the unfinished bridge.

The next few words, shattered Team Seven's battle plan. "Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō (Secret Technique: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals)."

A dome of mirror like rectangular plates surrounded Kakashi, effectively cutting him off from Zabuza, his genin, and his client.

"Hatake Kakashi, I will be your opponent. You will not leave my mirrors alive." The falses hunter nin who had saved Zabuza, appeared in every one of the mirrors surrounding Kakashi. Each replica drew a handful of icy senbon and began to bombard the silver-haired shinobi from all sides.

'Damn,' Kakashi internally swore as he dodged around the sharp ice needles.

* * *

Outside the dome, Kakashi's team was having similar thoughts to their sensei. They were a touch more sever.

"Shit,shit shit," Naruto swore aloud.

After knocking away Kakashi, Zabuza had slipped back into the blanketing mist around the three genin. The wary genin kept their eyes peeled in every direction. Naruto shifted her broadshield into a smaller variation with a short sword for her other hand.

The three of them were alone. Alone against an elite jounin, who was apparently skilled enough to think he had a chance at killing his kage.

Kakashi better hurry the hell up.

Naruto pulled her goggles up to her forehead, the mist had fogged them up too much to be used. The Uzumaki female began barking orders to her fellow genin, "Sakura get your sensor up, tell us where he's at. Sasuke, cover her. Don't engage Zabuza unless he gets in close."

"Got it."

"Understood."

Sakura moved closer to Tazuna and began to close her eyes in concentration. She formed her hands into the ram seal to help her focus her technique.

Sakura had managed to awaken her sensor abilities the previous month. She could pick up distinct chakra signatures very well, especially if they were using a prolonged technique like Kirigakure no Jutsu. The problem, however, was that she was unable to move while using it.

Team Seven could find Zabuza, but they would have to defend both Sakura and the client. at once. It was a hell of a trade off, but Naruto found it worthwhile.

Sakura suddenly called out, "Seven o'clock!"

True to her statement, Zabuza, who had recovered his blade, rushed in on Sasuke's side in an attempt to bulldoze the genin and kill Tazuna.

"Katon:Goukakyuu Fire Release: Great Fireball." A torrential ball of flames leapt from Sasuke's mouth straight at the oncoming missing nin.

He twisted out of the way, avoiding the technique, but was forced to stop when three kunai landed on the ground before him. The ex mist jounin leapt back as the tags went off.

Instead of a feint in the form of an explosive note, the tags let off a small explosion with a low boom. Zabuza his bones rumble from his position.

So the blonde brat's explosives packed more punch and less fire? No he closed the distance well enough she wouldn't be able to use them without killing the client herself.

Zabuza hopped back into his mist and circled around for another attempt.

"Three o'clock," Sakura whispered to Naruto.

With a nod, Naruto launched a hail of shuriken into the mist. She heard the metal stars impact of the swordsman's blade. With a quick hand seal, Naruto set them off.

Four of the shuriken had been tagged with standard explosive notes. They went off with a bang blowing away a large section of mist.

"He moved," Sakura called. He's at six-, no eight. He's sending clones!"

Three mizu bunshin burst from the mist to assault the team from multiple direction. Sakura dropped her sensor to face her own attacker.

She waited until the last second to block the downward swing with her much smaller knives. Sakura own significant strength combined with the weakness of the mizu bunshin allowed her to easily hold off the overhead strike. She snaked out her arm for a balded jab into the clone's belly. It burst apart into a small surge of water.

Sasuke had surprised his combatant with a flash of his Sharingan, allowing him to predict the movements of the clone and easily sway away its horizontal swing. Sasuke fluidly threw a kunai into the chest of the water clone as he swayed back into his original position.

As Naruto blocked with her shield and quickly dispelled the bunshin with a thrust of her short sword, she realized the true purpose of Zabuza's bunshin.

Sakura had stopped using her sensor abilities.

The real Zabuza burst into their missed and swung his blade diagonally at the unsuspecting Tazuna. Naruto swiftly put herself between the two, managing a hasty block with both shield and sword.

Zabuza grinned as he pushed down harder on the defending genin, "You're not half bad kid, who are you?"

"No one of consequence," the blonde Uzumaki quipped.

Before Zabuza could break through Naruto's hasty defence, Sakura came to the rescue with a punch that would have left much more than a bruise had Zabuza not danced away at the last moment.

"Thanks," Naruto nodded to Sakura. "I've got an idea.

* * *

Kakashi nimbly leapt out of the way of another barrage of senbon. While Zabuza's accomplice was exceptionally fast inside his mirrors, he was nowhere near fast enough to come even remotely close to hitting the Konoha jounin, especially with his Sharingan active.

Unfortunately, the reverse seemed true as well. Kakashi had blasted the mirrors with a Katon technique almost immediately. It had barely any effect on the surprisingly hardy mirrors.

It seemed he'd have to get more creative.

* * *

Zabuza grinned as he heard the blonde girl separate herself from the rest of the group to face him alone. "I thought Konoha ninja valued teamwork," he mocked from his hiding spot.

"Someone's got to guard the client while I kick your ass." Naruto boasted from her spot between him and her team.

Zabuza jumped out from right next to her, in an attempt to bifurcate the arrogant brat. His blade clanged as it crashed against her overly large shield one more. "How many weapons do you carry?"

"Just the one," Naruto shot back from behind her masterwork. She went in for a kick at the Momochi's legs that was stepped away from. Taking advantage of Zabuza's footing, Naruto shot up and smacked away his sword with the flat of her hand. Her attempted follow up at Zabuza's open guard was shut down by a hard kick that sent he skidding across the ground.

She quickly brought her shield up to stop the overhead strike that would have ended her tenure as a kunoichi. She managed to form a single hand sign despite the crushing pressure from the heavy blade.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone)." Zabuza was forced to abandon his attack as a dozen clones tried to bash him with their own shields.

Naruto stood quickly and went back on the offensive with her clones at the head of the charge. Their movement was somewhat slowed by the encumberance of their tools, however.

Zabuza effortlessly cut through the clones like a meat grinder, before landing a deep cut into the shoulder of the original. Blood poured from her open wound onto the legendary blade.

Naruto grunted as she pushed off Zabuza's blade with her hand and beat a hasty retreat to her squad. Sakura began first aid on her deep wound. Her hands glowed a faint green as Sakura used in intermediate knowledge of medical techniques.

"What's the matter?" Zabuza taunted, "I thought you were going to 'kick my ass'."

The shit-eating grin from the blonde nuisance made him distinctly uncomfortable.

"Who says I didn't?"

Zabuza's heard an uncomfortable sizzling he had come to associate with the whiskered genin. His eyes flicked to Kubikiribocho.

When did she have time to-?

Oh right. He thought her _slapping_ the sword was odd. Clever bitch.

Zabuza hurled his blade toward the genin. Anything was a weapon after all.

The blade detonated about halfway between Zabuza and the team. Naruto widened her shield as much as possible in such short notice, while her team and Tazuna crouched behind it. Team Seven avoided the hail of shrapnel from the ruined sword.

Zabuza hadn't been quite so lucky. Bereft of his sword, which he normally would have used to block such a thing, Zabuza made a hasty kawarimi. Unfortunately he caught a few metal slivers before he could use his replacement.

Zabuza winced beneath his mask as he examined his injured arm. It seems his luck had held up. The bits of metal that hit him had passed through his arm and part of his leg without cutting any arteries.

He flexed with a wince. It still hurt like hell though.

It was time to give those damnable genin a nasty surprise.

* * *

Kakashi was starting to get severely annoyed. he had found that his Raiton techniques were about as useful as his Katon ones. Actually he had seen his last attempt at Katon melt a good deal of the ice. His masked enemy had repaired it quickly.

Any progress was good progress he supposed.

On a brighter note, he had managed to distract his assailant with a particularly nasty fire technique long enough to summon Pakkun, who he had promptly sent outside the dome.

The small dog was carefully tracking the masked foe by scent. When Kakashi signalled him, Pakkun would call out which mirror contained the real Haku.

He was confident the Chidori (One-Thousand Birds) could pierce the mirrors, he just needed the hunter to hold still for a moment.

* * *

Team Seven watched as the Demon of the Bloody Mist calmly walked back onto the field. He headed toward handle of his blade, still attached to the cracked lower fourth of the broken blade.

None of the squad of three made a move to stop him. Underestimating a jounin, even one without his sword would get them killed.

"That was pretty clever," the masked man called as he picked up the handle of his beloved blade. "You were bull-headed enough to get cut up just to get rid of my sword. Bravo."

Naruto wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult. Ever the optimist, Naruto opted to take it as the former, "Thanks, I guess."

Zabuza just kept staring at the handle of his sword. "The thing is..." Zabuza began with an unnerving smile, "Kubikiribocho is not so easily broken."

"What are you talking about? That thing is-" Naruto paused, staring dumbfounded as the blade of Zabuza's sword began reforming. "Oh, that is such bullshit."

Before her very eyes Zabuza's sword had restored itself to pristine condition..

"How the hell did you do that?" Naruto demanded, annoyed.

Why wouldn't she be? She had put a metric ton of effort into getting rid of that damn thing, and here it was, good as new.

Zabuza chuckled, deciding to humor the doomed genin, "Kubikiribocho can restore itself with the iron collected from the blood of its victims." Zabuza eyed his repaired sword, "It seems your blood is particularly useful." Zabuza hefted the blade onto his shoulder, "Since you've given me such an enjoyable battle, I'll give you one last chance to give up the old man."

"No can do," Naruto said sternly.

"Oh well, your funeral," Zabuza chuckled as he thickened Kirigakure no Jutsu. The members of Team Seven could barely see three feet in front of their faces.

He had toyed around with these brats far too long. It was time to show them the difference between a genin and an elite jounin.

Naruto spoke to her beleaguered teammates, "New plan."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow as his Sharingan scanned the landscape around them, "Better than the old one?"

"You bet. I need you to keep him still for a couple of seconds," Naruto replied firmly.

"Easier said than done," Sakura pointed out.

"Nothing we do is ever easy," Naruto replied.

"Except for the last week," Sasuke countered.

"Fair enough," Naruto conceded.

Zabuza's voice echoed around the genin,"You should really be silent when you're being hunted."

The former Kiri ANBU crashed through the mist, knocking over Naruto like a freight train, and brought his blade to bear on Tazuna.

Before It could reach however, He found it stopped by the two unassuming blades of Sakura. Zabuza's analytical mind quickly realized the girl\was channeling Doton chakra through the small blades, actually allowing her to hold him back, if barely.

Despite popular belief, Zabuza carried more than just his legendary blade. He proved that by swiftly drawing a kunai and sending it into the neck of the bridge builder.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

Then, the old man burst into smoke.

He had been a clone the entire time.

Zabuza saw red.

He moved to knock the girl away with his free arm, only to find it trapped by the Uchiha. He roared in anger as he attempted to dislodge the Uchiha. The blonde girl rose, readying a knai to stab him.

Zabuza had to abandon his blade once more to use his arm to peel off the Uchiha while he kicked the pink-haired one away. The jounin jumped back from the genin, deciding enough was enough. These three were far too quick and far too battle-ready to be genin. He was going to have to go all out to finish this.

He was going to break through their formation, retrieve his blade, and drown the genin he had come to hold mild grudging respect for.

He was going to do all those things, up until he saw the blonde girl lift his blade with a heave of effort and hold it next to her shield.

Zabuza's reaction at what was happening was distinctly similar to the one Naruto had only moments ago.

Before his very eyes, the kunoichi turned her shield into metal slag that completely enveloped Kubikiribocho. By the time she was done, his beautiful blade was enveloped in an blob of lumpy, dark metal.

Zabuza was so shocked, he barely caught the lightweight form of Haku, who had been thrown at him by Hatake Kakashi.

"Sorry, Zabuza-sama," Haku managed weakly, "I was unable to hold back Kakashi-san." Haku was still awake, but seemed exhausted.

Everything had gone to hell for Zabuza. His weapons both literal and figurative were currently gone. The bridge builder had never been there at all. He was probably held up somewhere far away with the blonde girl's clones. When he saw Kakashi, uninjured save for a few cuts and bruises, land next to his genin, he knew he had lost. There was no way he could be the man and his genin together, while protecting Haku. Zabuza dropped Kirigakure no Jutsu.

"It seems you've bested me again, Hatake," Zabuza said rising to stand between Konoha force and his own defeated apprentice.

"It seems that way," the Konoha jounin said solemnly.

Zabuza locked eyes with the blonde, only now realizing he never learned her name, "Look after my sword would, would you?"

Naruto gave him a stiff nod.

Before either party could speak further, a large blast of water forced the Konoha team to back up.

"There he is!" a voice Zabuza never expected to hear again, "We told you we could find him."

Zabuza looked over to see Gouzu and Meizu, who were standing with someone he hadn't seen in years.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you," a stern voice said.

"Ao?" Zabuza couldn't believe his eyes. There he was with his blue hair and eyepatch. Next to him was a boy around the age of Kakashi's students. He had short blue hair and glasses connected to ear protectors. While Zabuza didn't recognize him, he did recognize the corded handles of the blade carried on his back. This kid had Hiramekarei?

Was he already dead and seeing those he knew in life? No. Haku was still with him. He was sure that when he died, he wouldn't be going to the same place as her.

Naruto reminded them that they weren't the only ones there, "I swear this karmic backlash for something. How many of you guys are there?"

"Hello, old friend," Ao said gruffly, "looks like you could use some help."

"I wouldn't mind it," Zabuza confessed.

As Ao, the Demon Brothers and the newest member of The Seven swordsmen of the Mist stood across from the Konoha team, silence reigned.

Until there was a loud tapping coming from the bridge. "I hire the so called 'Demon of the Bloody Mist and he can't even deal with a few measly Konoha ninja. I suppose it's a good thing I wasn't ever going to pay you at all, huh?" Gato stood on the nearly finished bridge, an army measuring well over a hundred behind. All of them were wearing cocky grins and making gestures that civilian might have found threatening.

No one still on the battlefield was a civilian so that had zero effect. Gato had just walked right into the lion's den with a herd of delicious sheep.

Naruto smiled and silently took back her previous comments about karmic backlash. Thank Kami, Gato actually played into Team Seven's plan.

And now Zabuza had a handy outlet for his angry tendencies, "It seems we are no longer enemies, Kakashi."

"Looks like it," Kakashi replied brightly.

Naruto tilted the heavy chunk of metal so it was standing straight up. She then slowly drew her shield back from Zabuza's own blade, leaving Kubikiribocho unharmed. "You probably want this back," Naruto said carrying the blade over to Zabuza while she swung her shield onto her back.

"Thanks kid," Zabuza said accepting his sword back. "You know, I never got your name."

Naruto smiled as she watched Gato's forces slowly closing the distance between them and the gathered shinobi. "It's Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto."

Ao's visible eye noticeably widened at that.

Zabuza chuckled. "I should have realized."

"Say, Naruto said while sealing her shield back into her arm, "you think you can launch me into the air with that? I've got a special surprise for Gato."

Zabuza eyed her, assessing her weight, now that she stowed away her unusual weapon. "Sure, I don't see why not. Save the runt for me, would ya?"

With that Zabuza held his blade flat above the ground. It was a testament to his strength, chakra enhanced or not, that the sword barely lowered when Naruto nimbly landed on it. "Can do."

With a mighty heave, Zabuza threw the blonde Uzumaki high into the air above the battlefield.

* * *

Inari, after watching his mom be saved by two clones Naruto had left behind to defend the house, had decided enough was enough and had run through town, rallying everyone to stand up to Gato.

If Naruto thought he could be a hero, he was going to make sure he didn't disappoint her. One of the clones had led him to his grandpa, who had joined the rapidly growing host of Nami no Kuni's citizens.

The makeshift mob of villagers arrived at the bridge just in time to see the blonde girl in question fly into the air.

"Woah," one villager said, shocked.

* * *

Naruto flew through the air in an upward curve, steadily positioning herself above

Naruto waited until she felt her upward velocity begin to slow. With a flash of her hands, she launched a small barrage of kunai into the midst of Gato's forces.

The brigands hurriedly shoved against one another in an attempt to dodge the dozen or so black knives raining from the sky. Gato who had been in the back, pushed himself further from his host of forces.

Only a few were hit by the shinobi weapons. The remainder looked up, waiting for gravity to bring the blonde kunoichi into their welcoming arms.

All of a sudden things got very bright.

If a concussive note was an explosive note with more power and less range and fire, then the incendiary notes that were thrown into the midst of Gato's forces were the reverse.

Widespread fires broke out among the ranks of Gato's men. The brutes roared in agony as they attempted to put out the all consuming flames. Some of them threw themselves from the bridge in an attempt to put themselves out in the water. Unfortunately for them, the bridge was more than high enough to break their bones on impact.

Faced with the choice of burning to death or drowning, many of them froze in indecision, letting the fast burning flames make the choice for them.

By the time the flames had died down, dozens of corpses littered the once pristine bridge. Quite a few men had survived with second and third degree burns. Those that were still painfully conscious tried limping away from the carnage around them.

To the villagers of Nami no Kuni, it seemed like righteous justice.

To Gato, it was his worst fears come to life.

Completely alone, the portly tyrant began to run as far away from those damned shinobi as fast as he possibly could.

"Coming down!" a voice called from overhead.

Above him the blonde girl had somehow made copies of herself and used them to slow her descent. She landed in a crouch not ten feet in front of him.

"Now where do you think you're going, hmm?" the blonde said, standing up. "I think someone wants to have a word with you," Naruto said with a gesture to behind him.

Gato froze, too afraid to look at who he knew was behind him.

"Hello, Gato. No time for your employee?" The voice was filled with unrestrained malice.

Gato shook like a leaf as he forced himself to look behind him. "Z-zabuza! I-I was just about to speak with you."

Zabuza wasn't going to give Gato the chance to try to explain away his action, however. With a single swing, the tiny dictator had his head lopped from his shoulders. Blood squirted from the man's stump of a neck.

Damn, that was satisfying. Nothing he cut apart in the last day actually bled, with the exception of the copy of the bridge builder.

Speaking of which, Zabuza looked over at the Uzumaki kunoichi, who was walking past the corpse, carefully avoiding getting blood on her sandals.

"Bit messy, don't you think?" Naruto said to her former enemy.

In response, Zabuza jerked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing out Naruto's previous handiwork.

She had the decency to give a sheepish grin and scratch the back of her head with blush.

The two walked back to their respective comrades while the crowd of villagers broke out into a roar of cheers at seeing the source of misery in their lives removed from the world.

Zabuza eyed Ao and the new guy, "What brought you out here, Ao?"

Ao seemed to be watching the cheering crowd, strongly reminded of the situation in Kiri. He gave his friend a genuine grin, "The war's over Zabuza, Terumi Mei is the Mizukage. She wants her swordsmen back."

Zabuza was stunned. It was over. Mei was the Mizukage? Zabuza felt an enormous weight lifted from his shoulders. For years he had carried on with the belief that he was the only one who could stop the tyrannical Yagura.

It seemed his old flame proved him wrong. Zabuza chuckled to himself. She enjoyed doing that.

Zabuza smiled beneath his bandages, not a smirk, not a grin, just a smile.

* * *

Naruto gaped at Haku, who had lost her mask in the battle with Kakashi. "I feel like I should have seen this coming, somehow."

Haku was leaning on the newest member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū, Chojuro was his name. The Demon Brothers lagged behind them."I'm glad we aren't enemies anymore, Naruto-san."

"Me too," the blonde admitted, "I take it Zabuza was your precious person" Naruto said, Sakura coming to stand next to her.

"That's correct," Haku replied, still exhausted from her battle with Kakashi..

"Haku!," the rough voice of Zabuza called out, "we're leaving."

Haku looked over to see him standing next to Ao, "Where to, Zabuza-sama."

Zabuza paused for a moment, "Home."

That word seemed to reinvigorate Haku as she scrambled across to Zabuza, "Really?"

Zabuza nodded once.

The present Kiri nin prepared to leave.

Kakashi's voice stopped them, "Please pass along to Mizukage-sama that Konoha wishes her the best of luck."

Ao looked at Kakashi's gathered team, "I'll be sure to do that." He nodded to Kakashi and surprisingly, Naruto, "Hatake-san, Uzumaki,san."

With that, the Kiri shinobi swiftly vacated the area.

* * *

Kakashi covered his eye and looked back to his genin. "It seems it's time for us to go. Gato's gone, the bridge is finished...mostly, and we just learned some very valuable intel about Kiri. All in a day's work!" the masked ninja said brightly.

His genin stared at him, before Sakura poised an elegant point, "This vacation sucked, Kakashi-sensei."

"Agreed," Naruto said flatly.

Even Sasuke gave a nod of agreement.

* * *

In all the excitement, the villagers barely even noticed the Konoha shinobi leaving Two did, however.

Inari ran up to Naruto, "You're leaving already?"

Naruto gave him a smile, "That's right, we have to go back home."

She noticed Inari had his head down. He was sniffling. "Inari, it's alright to cry when you're happy, you know."

"I'm not crying!" he vehemently denied.

Naruto plucked his hat off his head and playfully roughed up his hair, earning her a blush she didn't notice from the young teen.

Meanwhile, Tauna had walked up to Kakashi, "I really can't thank you enough for what you've done here."

Kakashi made his signature eye-smile, "Just remember, when you need help, call Konoha." Kakashi's visible eye narrowed in a stern look, "and don't lie about the mission next time, you're damn lucky you got a team capable of taking on Gato."

Tazuna furiously nodded at the upset jounin.

"Good," and just like that, Kakashi was back to his normal cheerful demeanor.

"Let's move," Kakashi called..

Naruto nodded, giving Inari a quick hug and rejoining her team. She was glad to get away from the overly grateful looks the villagers had been giving her.

Team Seven left in a burst of speed, eager to go back home.

* * *

After a crew of villagers cleared away the gory remains of the old regime and quickly finished the new bridge, the crowd had assembled to commemorate the structure that would connect Nami no Kuni to the rest of the Elemental Countries.

"We still need a name," one villager called out.

Tazuna scratched his beard, "Yeah, something inspiring, something grand." He snapped his fingers, "I've got it, 'The Great Tazuna Bridge'."

His daughter smacked him over the back of the head for his arrogant comment.

Inari made a thoughtful face, "How about 'The Great Naruto Bridge'?"

With a cheer of agreement from the crowd, it was decided.

"The 'Great Naruto Bridge' it is then," said a quickly recovered Tazuna.

* * *

As Fast Response Team Zero sped through the trees, Naruto sneezed and nearly lost her footing. "Not a word, teme," she said sternly.

Sasuke smirked, "No problem Whisker Tits,"

Naruto quickly flung a brace of shuriken that the Uchiha heir tilted out of the way of.

Kakashi looked at Sakura, "Whisker Tits?"

"It's a long story," Sakura said with a shrug.

* * *

**Omake**

Forging Fast Response, The Genin Exam.

For the third time that day, Naruto had been hit harder than she ever had in her life.

She winced as her back smashed into a thick tree in Training Ground Seven. Her perspective sensei had told her, Sasuke-teme, and his cheerleader that they had until noon to take a bell from him. If they failed, they'd get sent back to the Academy.

The problem was there were two bells. That didn't worry the budding fuuinjutsu expert. Sakura was almost laughably incompetent. She'd barely be a factor. Sasuke on the other hand was a very skilled ass.

No, Naruto worried about the man himself. Kakashi had kicked the three of them around the field like they were rank amateurs. They were, but Naruto had thought herself at least a bit more capable than that.

Sure her grades were average, but that was because she spent half of her days alone studying the difficult art of sealing. She worked better on her own, anyway. At least she thought she did. She could throw around explosive tags all day and she was rather proud of her unusual speed and stealth abilities.

That didn't matter at all, as far as she could tell. The one-eyed jounin had swatted her aside like a bug. The only bright note she could find was that her fellow genin hopefuls were doing as poorly, if not worse, than herself..

She heard Sakura scream sometime earlier and had watched Sasuke get dragged up to his neck into the earth. She had taken the moment Kakashi was lecturing Sasuke to launch a surprise attack on the cycloptic jounin.

It had failed miserably. The silver-haired jounin had caught her out of the air and thrown her into the tree she now found herself slumped against without even looking at her.

Seriously, how the hell were they supposed to even land a clean hit on this Kakashi guy, let alone take a bell from him.

She looked around the clearing she had fought her perspective sensei in. Save for the furious head of Sasuke sticking out of the ground, it was utterly devoid of life.

The voice of the man in question echoed gravely throughout the trees, "You three are pitiful. You know, I'm getting awfully tired of failing every team Hokage-sama sends me. Maybe if I just kill you three, he'll stop. Guess what, if just one of you manages to get a bell, you all get to live. If not... well it wouldn't be the first time a jounin had to put down a genin team who attacked their proctor after failing the test."

Terrifying killing intent flooded the area making Naruto and Sasuke's hearts clench with fear and waking Sakura from her forced slumber.

This man was going to kill them because he was annoyed at being assigned genin teams. He would just lie to the Hokage and say they attacked them after failing his test.

Unless..Well, it was her only option. Naruto made a hand seal for a technique Kakashi shouldn't know she had. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone)."

Dozens of identical copies of herself appeared in puffs of smoke. She sent them to find Sakura and hold back Kakashi long enough to put her idea in motion.

She sprinted over to the submerged form of her possible squadmate. She looked into his furious charcoal eyes, "I don't like you and you don't like me. But I'll damned if I'm going to die out here." Her clones rapidly dug the Uchiha out down to his waist. She stuck out her hand to the brooding boy, "Partners, at least temporarily?"

Sasuke eyed her hand like it was a viper, but eventually grabbed hold . With a grunt of effort, Naruto pulled him to his feet. "Now we've got to find Saura,"

Sasuke scoffed, "That loser?"

Naruto sighed, "It doesn't matter. Look I've got a plan, but I need all of us to make it work. Now come on."

* * *

From high above in the trees, Kakashi watched them closely, "Now you're getting it." The legendary shinobi leapt off his perch to find a place to wait and enjoy his literature.

* * *

They found Sakura warily looking for them in the woods. Naruto told her the hard truth that if she didn't join up with them, she had no chance in hell of succeeding in this test. Sakura had reluctantly agreed.

Naruto had gotten a quick rundown of the skills of her temporary allies. She was pleased to hear Sakura had actually developed some level of speed in her time at the academy.

Naruto's clones located Kakashi idly standing in a clearing, reading his pornographic book. Attempts to attack him led to the entire force of clones being immediately dispelled. The three carefully watched him from the bushes. Naruto turned to the two, "I can give you two one opening, don't waste it."

The two other would-be genin nodded.

Naruto made the hand seal once more, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Another two dozen clones formed all around her.

With a battle cry, the army of one charged the elite jounin. They hurled shuriken, kunai, and even a fuuma shuriken or two.

Kakashi sighed as he began handedly destroying the clones and dodging thrown projectiles. Did Naruto really think this would make an opening for the other two? He had expected better from Minato-sensei's daughter.

Oh well, the girl had been living alone all these years.

Kakashi was cut from his musings as he stepped by one of the fallen fuuma shuriken. In a burst of smoke, Naruto appeared and clung to Kakashi's legs and torso like an octopus.

How did she hide from him? He should have easily spotted a henge like that.

"Now!" Naruto roared.

Sasuke and Sakura burst from the treeline and jumped at him from either side.

Just then, the bell rang and Naruto suddenly found herself holding onto a log.

Naruto shot up like a rocket and made sure the other two were on their feet.

They had failed. Kakashi was coming to kill them.

The three got into a rough triangle formation. If Kakashi planned to kill them, they weren't going down without a hell of a fight.

Naruto idly hoped they could take out his eye. Leaving the elite jounin blind wouldn't be a bad way to go out, not for a fresh out of the academy team of genin.

She spotted Kakashi calmly walking into the clearing, alarm clock in hand. She noticed him closely observing their formation, probably looking for a weakness. When Naruto saw his gaze lingering on Sakura, she stepped between the pink haired girl and the murderous jounin. She shot him a challenging look as if to say 'Try it'.

"None of you got a bell," Kakashi began sternly, "You know what that means?"

The former genin tensed in preparation for the move that would surely kill them all.

"You pass!" Kakashi said brightly.

The new Genin Team Seven were stunned. "The hell?" Naruto asked, still tensed for an attack.

Kakashi made some sort of strange U-shape with his eye. Naruto thought that was the man's impersonation of a smile. "The point of the test was teamwork. You didn't honestly expect to take a bell on your own did you? I'm an A-ranked ninja after all."

Naruto straightened out and sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. She had thought he expected her to take a bell from him.

Seeing their impromptu leader relax, Sasuke and Sakura did the same.

"Congratulations Team Seven," Kakashi said cheerfully, "You're all pretty quick by the way."

Naruto couldn't stop smiling at her-her team's victory. "Maybe, we oughta be some kind of special team that bails out other teams or something," she said offhandedly

She wouldn't know how much trouble she had created for herself with that comment until much later.

* * *

**That's it folks. I hope you enjoyed it, because I will be back in school shortly and won't have as much time to put these together.**

**Thank you to all of you who viewed, followed, favorited, and reviewed. **

**On another note, I wanted to give fair warning that in the long term the pairing may be yuri. I haven't quite decided yet. I know for a fact, that it will not be Naruto/Sasuke.**

**For those of you who will stop reading because of this, I understand and respect your decision.**

**If you're still here, buckle up. It's going to be a fun ride.**

**Catch you later.**

**-The Interrupter.**


	3. Chapter 3: Clockwork Shinobi

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I get the feeling I'm going to get very tired of writing that sentence.**

Chapter 3: Clockwork Shinobi

In Konoha, the mid-morning sun beat down on the Konoha ANBU Headquarters. Actually, the sun beat down on the packed dirt roads near the Hokage Tower. The Headquarters proper was actually located under the aforementioned roads.

Konoha's ANBU, up until very recently, the ANBU forces had been split into ten from Alpha to Kappa. The Hokage's rotating ANBU guard held the eleventh designation Lambda.

These divisions, while mostly standardized, had certain points of pride that separated themselves from their brethren.. Any deviation from one division to another was slight. For instance, Iota had the best trappers, Epsilon had the best stealth experts, and Delta had the best Taijutsu.

To further confuse any spies, these divisions could hold any number of individual shinobi, so as to not allow enemies to make accurate estimations of Konoha's silent elite. As such, the number of squads within these divisions was also difficult to calculate and therefore any number of ANBU captains could exist.

To put its simply, ANBU had three, technically four, ranks; Operator, Captain, Colonel, and Commander.

The last title was held by a single individual, who commanded the entirety of Konoha's ANBU forces. Only the Hokage, Shimura Danzo, and Jiraiya of the Sanin were aware of his or her identity.

There were ten Colonels in total, one for each division. Whichever captain in charge of the Hokage's guard, held the unofficial, but still respected rank of Lambda Colonel.

When the venerated Hokage turned Team Seven into the prototype Fast Response team, he was left with a bit of a quandary. He didn't want them officially on the records, as successful prototype teams had a notoriously high bounties. After all, if another village was doing something that worked well that your village wasn't, copying it was a time-tested strategy.

For instance, the original sensor division had been a Kiri idea. One that every other village replicated when they realized how poorly combat went while Kirigakure no Jutsu was in effect.

Instead of keeping the identities of his Fast Response in normal shinobi records, Hiruzen had used his power as kage to create a twelfth ANBU division, designated Mu. That meant any equipment, funding, or mission that went through Fast Response was placed in the highly restricted ANBU records. While nearly every member of Konoha's ANBU would know the identities of the sixteen year old shinobi, the rest of the shinobi populace would be entirely unaware.

This also meant that the ANBU HQ had had a new wing dug out for use by the fledgeling division. Unfortunately having an office space, also meant paperwork. Paperwork Kakashi, who held the rank of ANBU Colonel in the Mu division, would never do. When presented with such responsibility, Kakashi made an allusion to having dealt with that enough as a captain in Alpha division and then promptly handed off the work to his genin, claiming it would be a learning experience.

The only thing Naruto 'experienced' as she went through another form, was profound irritation at her lazy sensei/leader.

The Uzumaki sat behind a nice oak desk going through a stack of papers that had been delivered to Mu's offices. She was dressed in a pair of black kunoichi pants and a strange orange and black jacket that fit snugly around her torso. She leaned back into the plush chair with a sigh. The room was silent, other than a steady gentle thumping. coming from her shield in the corner. He bored eyes scanned the room. For being the underground offices for such a serious section of Konoha's shinobi, the ANBU headquarters did it level best to be cheerful and warm. The walls of the office had been painted deep green color. Two comfortable brown chairs were in front of the desk and a large red couch took up one entire wall. Though she couldn't see it, behind her was a wall filling map of the Elemental Nations. The borders, Hidden Villages, and key geographical features had been marked accordingly. A large set of horns, seemingly from a large bull, looked starkly out of place on the wall across from her was a tacky fake plant in the corner. Every time Naruto got rid of it, the damn thing came back. She even had Sasuke burn in once and the next day it was there again, ugly as usual.

It seemed there were some pranksters in the ANBU ranks.

Aside from the fake vegetation, the office was very posh. It didn't actually belong to Naruto per say. But if she was going to deal with all Kakashi's damn paperwork, she was going to take his kick-ass office. He never used it anyway.

Naruto had been the one caught doing all the paperwork, because the one time she pestered Sasuke into doing it, he had screwed it all up on purpose, leaving her with even more paperwork to correct the old paperwork. Sakura didn't do it because she pointed out that she couldn't afford to injure her wrists, or her medical skills would fall drastically. When Naruto argued that the same was true for her fuuinjutsu, Kakashi had actually pointed out that fuuinjutsu was heavily focused on writing, and that because of that, Naruto was best suited to deal with paperwork.

This led to Naruto's current situation. The whiskered kunoichi glared at the piece of paper in her hand.

As a result of the old man moving around the prototype squad, Team Seven was registered under ANBU Mu Division and Fast Response. This led to the squad being classified as both ANBU and not ANBU. That unfortunately meant that the ANBU armory wouldn't let them have that sweet armor. Hell they only got blank masks. Who the hell uses blank masks?

Naruto leaned back with a sigh as the thumping noise continued. Her half-lidded eyes looked over to the source of the noise.

Sakura was laid out on the couch in the room, steadily bouncing a hollow rubber ball off the flat of her shield. The slight incline of the leaning equipment popped the ball back into her waiting hand. The important thing to note about the situation was that Sakura's other arm was draped over her face, blocking her view. Naruto might have found it more impressive if she hadn't known Sakura had done surgery without being able to see. Sakura had certainly come a long way from the Bell Test eleven months previous.

With a devious smirk, Naruto placed her hand on her still unnamed shield. The smooth metal sank back in on itself, causing the rubber ball to fall into the divot. Sakura closed her hand to catch the ball. When she noticed nothing had landed, she closed her hand again. Sakura rose her arm high into the air, face still covered by the other. The medic made her hand flatten out. The thumb moved under her four fingers. The hand rapidly twisted left and right while opening and closing, giving the crude impression of a confused, long-necked bird.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, as the hand turned to face her. It opened wide as if cawing at her. Naruto grabbed the rubber ball and tossed it to the hungry beast. The hand opened and closed rapidly as if trying to swallow the ball. Sakura uncovered her face and sat up, green eyes filled with mirth. A small smile played on her lips.

Naruto sighed, "What do people even do with time off?"

Sakura tossed her ball back and forth in her hands, "Sleep, shop, civilian stuff, I suppose."

"I don't really do any of those things," Naruto said, leaning back and putting her arms behind her head.

Sakura paused in her motions to scratch her chin, "I used to, I think." She blinked, "When was the last time we weren't on call or on a mission?"

Naruto mulled the question over, "I think it was sometime in December."

"Oh," Sakura said, "What month is it?" she asked after a moment.

"March," Naruto replied.

"Oh," Sakura said, "I think I missed my birthday."

Naruto frowned, "Bummer."

Seemingly unfazed by missing her sixteenth birthday, Sakura looked over at Naruto's shield, "Say, can you make me one of those?"

"Maybe, but I don't think you could use it. I made it to mimic my Henge. My nervous system was mapped out onto those arrays."

"I know, I mapped it remember?" Sakura commented, a little upset she couldn't use the shifting weapon. Oh well, she still had her knives and ridiculous strength. Now if she could just copy Tsunade of the Sanin's absurd punch.

"You think your parents are mad about you missing your birthday?"

"No," Sakura replied, "I think they have a pretty good idea of what our team really is."

That was surprising to Naruto, "Really?"

"Yeah, they just seem to know whenever I'm going to go on a mission." Sakura frowned, "Come to think of it, They were giving me worried looks before the whole Akatou thing."

"Creepy," Naruto idly commented before giving her shield an intense stare.

Sakura clearly noticed her closest friend's behavior, "What is it?"

Naruto broke off her staring contest with the unblinking metal and sighed, "I still need to name this damn thing."

Sakura leaned back. Unique weapons usually held unique names. Naruto's creation, while experimental, was definitely unique. "Hmm," she muttered, "Hakabakashiishippou (Quicksilver)?"

"Color's too dark for that, and that name is way too long."

"Isshiki (Everything)?"

"Too esoteric," Naruto said, idly swirling the metal into fluid looking shapes.

"Nexumiironami (Gray Wave)?"

"Too unwieldy".

Sakura snapped her fingers, "Hogosha (Guardian)."

"Too.. generic. I guess it'll just stay unnamed for now. Thanks for your help anyway Sakura-chan."

Sakura just smiled back and shrugged."You done?" she asked gesturing to the papers on Naruto's desk.

"Done as I'm going to be," Naruto replied wit a sigh and put her head on her desk

Sakura got up and began toying with the blonde tactician's ponytails, lightly pulling them to and fro.

"If you were anyone else, I'd beat the hell out of you for that," Naruto grumbled.

Sakura smiled impishly, "But I'm not, so you won't"

Naruto grunted, but made no move to stop her.

"Why do you keep them in ponytails, anyway?" Sakura questioned.

The blonde kunoichi tilted her head up, "Why don't you dye your hair a more sensible color?"

Sakura twitched, but nodded. Uniqueness could be valuable to someone who spent a good deal of their time behind a mask.

"Besides," Naruto said stretching her arms and back, "I could dump wind chakra in them for a nasty surprise. If someone goes for a grab, they come back with a diced hand."

"If you were better with wind chakra," Sakura pointed out.

"Yes, if I were better with wind chakra," Naruto agreed. "We can't all have absurdly high Doton and Katon affinities."

"Actually, Katon and Doton are the most common affinities in Konoha," Sakura pointed out.

Naruto sighed, "Let's go grab our bastard and find something to do."

"I'm afraid that will to have wait," the voice of their sensei drawled as he stepped into the room, "The Hokage wants a formal debriefing." Kakashi glanced at Naruto standing behind his desk, "You're in my chair."

"No I'm not," Naruto said cheekily, "it's my office." With a grin, Naruto pointed at the small plaque on the door.

Kakashi's single eye glanced to his left.

_Mu Division: Commander, U.N_

He stared longer, slightly confused. When'd she have that put up?

"That was the one thing requisition forms actually worked for," Naruto said answering his unspoken question.

"Commander?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto shrugged her shoulders, "I said it as a joke, didn't think they'd actually do it."

Kakashi sighed, "Let's go."

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage looked over his first and only Fast Response Team. They stood in a staggered line in front of his desk. Kakashi and Sasuke shared similar looks of boredom, Sakura was giving him a polite smile. And Naruto was giving him a dirty look.

"You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?" Naruto questioned the venerable Hokage.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, my dear," The Sandaime commented kindly. The smoke from his pipe curled out of his nose.

Naruto could see by the amused look in his eyes that the Sandaime knew damn well what was happening in Nami before Team Seven's intervention. "Of course not.," she grumbled.

"I've called you here because of your report," Sarutobi spoke calmly. "It seems you took it upon yourself to depose a nation's government, legal or not. Your mission was to defend the bridge builder, not start a regime change."

Naruto blatantly stole Sasuke's previous justification for wiping out Gato, "Gato and his men were a threat to the client. We simply took a proactive approach in defending the client."

"Is that so?" Hiruzen asked sternly, looking over the assembled team.

"Yep," Kakashi said with a straight face.

"If that's the case, then... Excellent work, Team Seven," the Hokage said with a kindly smile. "Your actions have secured the trust of Nami no Kuni and given Konoha early news of Kiri's recovery. I will be sending an envoy to greet the new Mizukage. You've done well."

Naruto stared.

Sakura stared.

Sasuke grunted.

Naruto placed a hand out with an open palm. "Mission pay, please." She noticed the odd look the Hokage was giving her. She unsealed her shield and held it up to the light. "Chakra conductive iron ain't cheap, Jiji."

"I see," the Hokage said, quietly examining the suspicious curved plate of metal, "Pick up your checks downstairs. You're dismissed."

Naruto gave him a lazy salute, opened the window, and dropped out into the busy streets below.

The Sandaime raised an eyebrow and looked over at the remaining genin. Sasuke had already headed to the door. Sakura shrugged her shoulders, gave him a small bow and followed her dark-haired teammate out the door.

The Sandaime sighed and looked at his, arguably, strongest jounin. "Kakashi, want your honest opinion. Is your team capable of winning the exams."

Kakashi pondered for a moment, "I can't say for certain without knowing who the other villages will send."

Sarutobi slid a folder across the desk. "Intelligence believes those are the most likely candidates to be sent in as ringers, so to speak."

Wordlessly, the jounin picked up the folder and scanned the contents carefully. For minutes, the office was nearly silent. The Hokage waited patiently for Kakashi to speak while puffing his pipe.

Eventually Kakashi closed the folder with a quiet snap. "I think they have a shot."

The Hokage smiled lightly behind his pipe. "Even so, I'd like a detailed report on their skills by tomorrow morning."

"How about a vague report sometime next week?" Kakashi offered.

Sarutobi stared blankly at him. Kakashi shifted. It was tremendously unnerving.

"Right, report tomorrow. Got it."

* * *

Sakura idled through the streets, seeming rather bored. Her unique hair color made her easily recognizable, earning a few greetings from members of Konoha's populace. Naruto had left, claiming she was going to refine her somewhat lacking wind manipulation. Sakura,who was quite pleased with her ability to use her element, was determined to actually take the day off.

The only problem was that she didn't exactly know what to do with a day off. As she wandered the streets she felt the familiar scent of flowers enter her nose. Sure enough, her feet had taken her to her old rival's family store. How long had it been she she'd spoken to Ino?

Sakura shrugged and headed inside.

Yamanaka Ino had been tending the counter with her head in her hands. Ino was an attractive young woman with pale skin and light blonde hair, which hung low to cover her right eye, the rest of her hair was held in a long ponytail.. Her eyes were a pale teal-green. She was wearing her usual garb, which consisted of a purple skirt split up the middle to reveal a slightly shorter gray skirt underneath, along with purple sleeveless top that covered her upper torso to her neck, but left her midriff exposed, fishnet on her knees and forearms completed the look. A standard pair of shinobi sandals covered her feet and ankles.

Her father had made her work on the one day her sensei, Asuma, had given her off. Running a flower business wasn't particularly difficult, and she found often found herself with nothing to do. As she idly wondered if plants held enough sentience for her to use her family techniques on, the bell above the door rang.

Ino began speaking in a dull tone, "Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, how can I help- Forehead?"

Sure enough, Sakura was there, glancing around the shop, as she entered. She seemed different than she had at graduation. Her stance was more confident, her eyes seemed to quickly analyze the room, and her body was more toned overall, if the shape of her legs and arms was any indicator.

"Hey Ino, it's been awhile, hasn't it?" Sakura greeted her cheerfully.

Ino broke out of her observations at the sound of her rival's voice, "I've been great! I'm still way stronger than you, and I bet my team could beat yours even with Sasuke-kun."

Sakura frowned at Ino's infatuation with Sasuke. Was that really what she had been like? However, a challenge from Ino like that couldn't go unanswered, "Yeah right, Ino. You three couldn't beat me, Sasuke, or Naruto, even if it was one against three."

Ino became red at the mention of Naruto, "Don't bring _her _up!."

Sakura blinked, "What's your problem with Naruto?"

Ino scoffed and turned her head. "She thinks she's so great. I'm know she's trying to beat me for best blonde. She tries to act like she doesn't know what she's doing, but she can't fool me!"

Sakura's mouth twitched upward slightly. Naruto could be a little dense when it came to people. Years on your own would do that. If there was a war between Naruto and Ino, one side was entirely unaware of it. Ino never ceased to amuse.

* * *

(With Naruto- Training Ground Seven)

Out of nowhere, Naruto let out a violent sneeze. Unfortunately this caused her to lose focus on the wind chakra she had been practicing with. This led to a score of small slashes and cuts digging into her arm.

"What the hell?" Naruto shouted, holding her now bleeding appendage.

* * *

"Hey," Ino said all of a sudden, "You didn't call him Sasuke-kun." Ino jumped up and down. "Have you finally seen that you can't win Sasuke-kun's heart?"

"I guess I just don't know if I feel that way about him anymore," Sakura said with a shrug.

Ino gasped. "How can you say that? We've been fighting over him for years."

Sakura scratched her head, "I guess I got over it." Or she was too busy trying to keep herself and her team alive to worry about a crush, but Ino didn't need to know that.

They went on like that for an hour or so, rebuilding an old friendship that had been crippled by a childish rivalry over a boy. Ino still carried a torch for Sasuke, but Sakura's ambivalence eased the blonde.

* * *

Naruto's chest heaved as she sucked in great gouts of air. After making some progress with her affinity, she had decided to work on close range combat.

Overall, Naruto liked to use stealth and to keep her opponents at range while she used clones and fuuinjutsu to secure battlefield control. In fact, Naruto had originally made her shield to cover up a glaring weakness in her fighting style.

To be frank, she had no close range techniques or any sort of taijutsu style. She was fast, fastest genin on her team, but that could only get her so far. The shield did a damn fine job of compensating for that weakness. Having any and every weapon she could think of was damn useful, and decidedly surprising to her opponent.

There were a few problems, though. The shifting process took way too long, it was difficult to adjust to, given its weight, and she had to have a very detailed understanding of the object it was changing into. And to top it off, she could be disarmed, putting her back at square one.

The first three problems could be dealt with given time, but relying exclusively on her shield for close up was unacceptable. She was damn lucky that Kakashi had beaten Haku so quickly, because when she disarmed Zabuza, she handicapped her close quarters combat much more than the vaunted kiri jounin.

That line of thinking led to now. She had let out a couple dozen kage bunshin into the woods surrounding the clearing. Clones as fast as she was, as smart as she was, and each carrying a different variation of her shield. She also happened to be fighting all the devious copies of herself bare handed. Perhaps not her best idea, but trial by fire was a bit of a staple in how she learned.

Her bright blue eyes looked back and forth incessantly. Her arms were held in loose fists by her chin and chest. The numerous cuts that littered her body were slowly closing with quiet hisses. Her entire body felt like a giant bruise, but she had managed to whittle down her opposition to just under ten. At least she thought it was ten. Her clones had taken off into the forest, and she wasn't nearly dumb enough to go into that hornet's nest.

He usual tactics weren't going to work here. She had restricted herself to using her fists, feet, and wit.

Two clones burst from the foliage, wielding a scythe and gauntlets, respectively. The dopplegangers split up and charged from either side. From the rear a third clone appeared, this one holding a broadsword. Naruto didn't move as they drew near. The scythe wielding clone went for a high horizontal swipe, while the gauntlet clone went for a low charge. The one behind her let out a downward slash to cut off her escape.

Naruto exploded into motion, ducking under the scythe swing and getting inside that clones guard. With a mighty pull on the shaft of the scythe, she ripped the clone off its feet and brought it forward to unintentionally block the broadsword with the bladed weapon. Naruto stomped on the pole of the weapon hard, forcing the broadsword's tip into the ground and driving the blade into the back of the gauntlet wearing clone, who had yet to recover from its dive. It disappeared in a satisfying puff of smoke. Naruto lashed an elbow out to dispel the scythe using clone, dispelling it as well. She launched herself into a shoulder charge at the broadsword wielder, who was raising its blade for another strike. The force of Naruto's impact knocked the large weapon out of its hands and sent it and her tumbling to the ground.

The blonde fuuinjutsu expert placed both hands on the clone's shoulders to pin its arms. She pushed her legs upward, using her arms as a pivot, before crashing down with a double heel stomp into the copy's chest. The force dispelled the clone so thoroughly it made her wince at the memory.

She rose back into a standing position, panting noticeably harder than before. The blonde couldn't stop now. All of her team would have to get stronger for the coming years. Deidara's message had been ample proof of that.

It seemed the S-class nightmare had been apart of a group of very strong, very unsavory people. Nine S-class missing nin, drawn together to hunt down the jinchuuriki. It was nearly the worst case scenario the Uzumaki could image.

The worst, oddly enough, was an undead army of shinobi from the past.

There was a glimmer of hope, however. Fortunately for them, Deidara had not wanted to join this organization. It seemed he had been forced in after losing a battle to Sasuke's brother, Uchiha Itachi. Uchiha Itachi, just one on an uncomfortable list, a list of nine people coming to kill her. It was eight, actually.

While Deidara didn't know she was a jinchuuriki, the explosives master had clearly indicated his desire to leave the group, and his willingness to cooperate with a village, who would help him get out or help him kill Itachi. Luckily him, there was a certain dark-haired male on her team who wanted the same thing. The Iwa terrorist had given them a list of names and small details on what he knew about the other members. It was hardly comprehensive, but the blonde man wasn't going to give anything else until he had some proof of support.

He also left a handy, if difficult, technique for her. She was still miffed about him calling her 'his firecracker', though.

She cracked her neck and made a 'come' gesture to the clones she knew were watching from the trees.

She was sure they wouldn't disappoint.

* * *

In a small, well lit room, the sound of a brush lightly scraping paper rang out. Smooth lines crossed one another in bold, thick lines. Every stroke added more detail; a curve hear, a set of jagged lines there. The carefully treated scroll accepted all these ministrations without complaint, bending freely to immaculate example of the art it was becoming apart of. As deft hands guided the brush, swirling red eyes predicted every brush stroke in a symphony of rapidly drying ink.

Uchiha Sasuke was participating in one of his favorite hobbies; the subtle art of cartography or mapmaking.

This one was a comprehensive representation of a small area in Tsuchi no Kuni. To be exact, it was the area that once housed the notorious Iwagakure fortress Akatou. With more pleasure than he should have taken, Sasuke made a series of harsh, jagged strokes, effectively crossing out the old bastion from the map.

Sasuke carefully blew on the ink to avoid curling and blotching. Iwa had tried to kidnap Sakura and himself. Now their precious fort was so much rubble and everyone inside it was dead.

Fast Response: 1, Iwagakure: 0.

In a flash of inspiration, aggravation, or some combination of the two, Sasuke quickly made an intricate drawing of a middle finger next to the ugly spot on the otherwise pristine map.

If he were Naruto, he'd probably write something blunt like 'Suck it' or 'Boom'. Instead, he preferred the exquisite art of imagery. Ironically, the blonde had once chided his stealth, stating that he was about as subtle as a middle finger.

Naruto. His blonde oddity of a teammate was one absurd thing after another. The scroll she showed him was just further proof of that annoying fact. Now she had nearly a dozen missing nin coming for her head. Including his brother.

The brush in the Uchiha's hand creaked under the pressure he exerted. HIs brother was coming, eventually. The pinwheels in his eyes spun furiously. If that murderous bastard thought he was going to take away one of the three people he gave a damn about, not that he'd ever admit that fact, than the traitor would find Sasuke's blade in his kidney.

Granted, he planned to put his blade in his brother's kidney anyway. This just gave him even more of a reason. The self-imposed avenger of the Uchiha clan felt his blood getting up. With a sigh, he put the map up to dry and blew out the candles. He was too angry to continue the patience draining process.

Time to go turn a few logs to cinders.

* * *

After getting the living hell beaten out of her by the rest of her clones, who decided to attack in unison, a thoroughly bloodied blonde had gotten Sakura to patch her up. She was damn sure not going to go to the hospital. Those places smelled like death and cleaning supplies. And the well-meaning medical staff were trained to keep injured shinobi in the building. Even if those injured shinobi healed at a ridiculous pace and could have gone home in half the time it took for a regular person to be there.

Fast Response's best and only physician was definitely the better option. Even if Sakura's bedside manner was a little more battlefield than bedside.

To thank her pink-haired comrade, Naruto offered to buy lunch, which Sakura accepted.

Unfortunately for the combat medic, Naruto picked Ichiraku Ramen. Sakura realized that she really should have expected that. Especially given that the blonde Uzumaki hadn't eaten at the small stand since leaving for Nami.

So, instead of being annoyed, Sakura found herself both mildly amused and disgusted as she watched her goggles-wearing teammate inhale bowl after bowl of the terribly unhealthy food.

Sakura raised her eyebrow as she resisted the urge to poke Naruto in the side, "I still don't know how you do that."

Ayame, who had been leaning over the counter to watch the ramen vacuum that was Naruto gorge herself, piped in, "I just wish I knew how she stays so thin." Ayame sighed, "Must be a kunoichi thing I guess."

Sakura sweatdropped slightly, "Yeah, a kunoichi thing." 'Or a Kyuubi thing,' she added to herself.

Naruto seemed to be ignoring both of them, intent on consuming her meal.

A third voice called out from Naruto's other side, "I can't figure it out either."

Sakura looked over at the other person dining with them. Yakushi Kabuto was a lanky genin with gray hair and glasses, and wore a purple top and pants with a white undershirt and white sash. Kabuto was a tragically unsuccessful genin, but a very sharp medic nin. He seemed to eat at Ichiraku's often, and met Naruto as a result. The blonde seemed to absorb him into her small circle of friends, as his choice of restaurant made him one of the few people to spend any significant measure of time with her.

The gray-haired genin stared at an uncaring Naruto, "Can her body really absorb the nutrients so fast she doesn't blow up like a balloon?"

Sakura shrugged, "I guess. I wonder if she'll explode if I poke you with a kunai," she tapped her chin in thought.

Naruto lifted her head, the noodles hanging from her mouth seemed to draw in on their own, "Just in the usual blood eruption."

At the phrase 'blood eruption', Ayame opted to slip away into the back, and Kabuto grimaced slightly.

Sakura frowned, "There'd probably some ramen in there, though."

Naruto deadpanned, "I usually avoid getting stabbed after I eat."

"Usually?" Kabuto asked.

Naruto folded her arms, "It's possible it happened and I didn't remember."

"Normally, people remember when they get stabbed," Sakura chided.

"Oh yeah? Then tell me how many times you got stabbed this year. Go ahead, I'll wait."

Sakura furrowed her brow, "Do those umbrellas Ame ninja use count as once, or for every one that hit?"

"Does it matter?"

"No, not really," Sakura said brightly, "I still couldn't remember."

"Aha," Naruto said triumphantly.

Sakura smirked, "Your food's getting cold."

Naruto made an 'Oh' face before diving back into the rapidly cooling dish.

The medic smiled as she finished her own meal, Naruto could control a battlefield like no one's business, but in matters of food, she was easily distracted.

Kabuto rubbed his neck, "You guys sure get into some rough stuff."

Sakura shrugged, "Bad luck I guess."

The whiskered kunoichi finished her last bowl with a satisfied sigh. "Oi, Ayame-chan!"

Ayame came from the back and accepted Naruto's payment with a smile. "Come back any time Naruto-chan. It seems like you haven't been around in forever."

Naruto grinned back at her, "Sorry, I'll try to come around more."

"Say, how did that project you were working on come out, Naruto?" Kabuto asked after thinking for a moment.

Naruto scratched her neck, "It's mostly finished, I guess."

At Sakura's questioning look, Naruto elaborated, "He's just talking about the shield."

Sakura nodded in understanding.

"Could I see it?" Kabuto asked.

Naruto shrugged, "Sure, but we'll need a bit more room."

The three genin got up and left the small restaurant.

* * *

Sasuke watched as his technique lit up the afternoon sky in Team Sevens' training grounds. Katon: Goukakyuu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball) was a very useful technique. It was also terribly slow.

As a result, Sasuke had been trying to reduce both the time it took to create, and increase the travel speed of the large conflagration. Unfortunately, to improve one side, the other would suffer. If he reduced the handseals, it took more focus to shape the chakra and still came out slower. He could speed it up if he added a few more seals, but then his opponent would have more time to prepare.

The fact that his brother was noted as having obscenely fast handseals only added fuel to the fire, so to speak.

So, the only male genin of Team Seven had been launching the technique into the air over and over to get a better feel for how the chakra was molded.

As he prepared to unleash the spherical firestorm once more, he was interrupted by a loud voice.

"It came from over here, you guys."

"Yes, Kiba, the massive fireball was a very strong indicator of that."

"Aww, shut up Shino," the now identified Kiba shot back to the also identified Shino.

"Both of you stop," a commanding third voice broke out, "I expect better from you two."

"Sorry, Kurenai-sensei" Kiba and Shino said in unison.

Sasuke rubbed his face as one of the teams from his graduating class came into view. Was he really supposed to see these people as his peers?

He reluctantly turned to face the slowly approaching team.

Inuzuka Kiba was in front, loud as ever. The feral boy had two red triangles on his cheeks, indicating his Inuzuka status. He wore black pants and a black jacket over a fishnet shirt. His hitai-ate was around his forehead and standard black shinobi sandals covered his feet. A large white dog followed dutifully by his side.

Behind Kba, stood Aburame Shino, a quiet, capable shinobi, who wielded his clan's bug colonies from hives within his body. Black pants and a high-collared black shirt covered most of his form. His eyes were covered by sunglasses and his headband was secured around his forehead. A large ,pale green, hooded jacket covered his upper body.

Near the back, Hyuuga Hinata followed the other two. The timid Hyuuga heiress, unlike her male teammates, wore her hitai-ate loosely around her neck. Her eyes were a pale lavender and without a pupil, the trademark of the Hyuuga clan. The pale girl wore calf-length blue pants along with a cream and lavender colored jacket.

Bringing up the rear of the group was the jounin sensei of Team Eight, Yuuhi Kurenai. The young jounin had long raven black hair and ruby red eyes. She wore strips of cloth with a thorn pattern that wrapped around her in the appearance of a dress. her right arm had a long red sleeve, while her left was bare. Bandages covered her arms to the elbow as well as her thighs. Her headband was around her head.

Spotting the dark-haired boy, Kiba called out, "Hey, Uchiha, what the hell is all the ruckus about?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and stiffly replied, "Training."

Shino adjusted his sunglasses, "My apologies, but a series of fireballs can imply distress."

Seeing that the Aburame was being polite, Sasuke attempted to be civil, "I understand how you could think that, but in this case, it's just training."

Kurenai cut in before Kiba could make the comment she knew he was about to, "If that's true, then we're sorry to interrupt. We'll be going."

Sasuke gave the woman a nod before speaking, "It's just as well, I'm finished."

Without another word, Sasuke left Team Eight behind.

Kiba scowled at Sasuke's retreating back, "Could that guy be any more cold?"

"He seems distracted," Shino noted.

"If I had Naruto and Sakura as my teammates, I'd be 'distracted' too," Kiba said, punching Shino in the arm.

Kurenai leveled a stare at Kiba's comment. Even Hinata seemed to give him a dirty look.

"Shino, back me up, man."

The bug user looked at Kiba over his glasses, "You stand alone."

"Akamaru?"

The large dog was too busy enjoying being scratched behind his ears by Hinata to pay any attention to Kiba..

"Traitor."

* * *

Naruto had led the two to a small training ground just outside the village proper. The blonde fuuinjutsu expert turned around to face the others.

Kabuto eyed her, "Is it ready?"

With a quick burst of chakra, the broadshield took its place on its creator's arm. Naruto grinned, "What do you think?"

Kabuto examined the unadorned piece of metal, "I don't see any tool marks. Does it do what you wanted it to?"

With her free arm, Naruto scratched the back of her neck, "Not as fast as I'd like it to, but yes."

To emphasize her statement, the shield silently shifted into a lengthy katana.

Kabuto whistled in appreciation. He barely detected any chakra in use when it changed.

After a few test swings, Naruto made it flow into a hand axe. The Uzumaki rushed to the edge of the field. With several wind-charged cuts, Naruto brought down a nearby tree. Naruto swiftly turned the axe into a short sword and medium-sized round shield. She casually cut through a falling limb with one arm and blocked a chunk of wood with the other.

"That's very impressive, Naruto-chan," Kabuto said, clapping.

"Eh, I do what I can," Naruto said with a small blush at the praise.

Sakura, who had been observing silently, spoke up, "How do make it smaller than the original form?"

Naruto grinned, "I seal it into itself."

Sakura shook her head, "But that's-"

"Asinine," Kabuto finished for her. "I don't know much about fuuinjutsu, but that sounds impossible."

Naruto smirked, turning her sword and shield into a pointer like a teacher's, "Now children, " she said, earning looks of ire from both medics, "you'd be right, if, this was one solid object. It's not. It's actually a series of increasingly bigger chunks of metal that fit together in the right amounts for what I want them to be. The leftovers get sealed into the largest piece in use."

Kabuto managed to wrap his head around the explanation, "Hmm, is it possible for someone else to change it?"

"Nope," Naruto answered cheerfully.

"Why not?"

"Trade secret."

The silver-haired genin looked over to Sakura, who nodded.

The reason the thing worked at all was because of Naruto's unique version of Henge. The origins of which, were an S-class secret.

"Must have cost a lot," Kabuto mused.

Naruto deflated, "Don't remind me." Gama-chan was still underfed after Naruto shelled out for the obscene amount of chakra conducting metal.

"Well," Kabuto said suddenly, "I've got to help out at the hospital tonight, so I'll see you guys later." Kabuto began leaving the training grounds at a leisurely pace.

"See you, Kabuto," Sakura said.

Naruto called out, "Later."

"Well," Sakura began, "What now?"

Naruto shifted the pointer back to its original state, before sealing it up, "I'm going to go fiddle with this thing, see if I can make it change faster. I don't think you want to watch me stare intently at sealing arrays for hours."

"I don't," Sakura agreed. "I'll see you later then."

Sakura left the training field to go home and read the book on useful flowers she had grabbed from Ino earlier in the day.

Naruto followed shortly afterward. While she always had the tools on her to craft her seals, doing so in a field, in the middle of nowhere, with rapidly fading light seemed foolish.

* * *

The Sandaime relaxed in his office as the sun began to set on his beloved village. The orange rays of the sun gently lit the clean room. Most of the staff had left for the day, and he had no more appointments.

He eased into his seat and looked down. An unassuming manilla folder sat on his desk. They contained rather detailed accounts of the skills of his one and only Fast Response team. To give Kakashi credit, if the man was motivated, he could get things done quite quickly.

Hiruzen paused to light his pipe before opening the folder.

Inside were four sheets of paper. A helpful photo was clipped to the page. He began reading.

A short while later, the Hokage finished his examination. It seemed these three should do quite well in the exams. The Hokage sighed and folded his hands in front of his mouth. The team was quite strong, but one line bothered him.

Calm brown eyes scanned the line once more.

_It is my belief that if one member of Team Seven were to defect, the other two would follow. _

It wasn't unheard of. Occasionally a team would come to trust their teammates more than their village. Inoichi had recently written a thesis on the topic.

In it he theorized that frequent time spent away from the village in high stress environments could cause a team to become wary of the village that put them 'out in the cold'. Wary enough, to side with their squadmates over their village. The thesis recommended time off and socialization with other shinobi of their village to reintegrate the team into the ninja populace.

Unfortunately, the steady need for a fast responding backup team had kept Team Seven from home more often than not.

This put him into a nasty position. He could either risk the lives of teams in the field, who are desperate enough to need reinforcements in a hurry. Or, he could risk the loyalty of his Team Zero by putting them in a never ending string of dire situations.

The Hokage needed more Fast Response teams in a hurry.

His musings were broken when, a sweaty chunin rushed into the room, scroll in hand, "Hokage-sama! The team investigated Ta no Kuni (Land of Rice) sent a distress call." The communications chunin handed him the scroll.

Hiruzen's eyes sped through the page. "Get me Kakashi, Kuma, and Tori," Sarutobi ordered. Two of his ANBU guards rushed to fill the task.

It seemed Fast Response couldn't rest. Not yet.

* * *

Naruto's head snapped up when she heard a tapping at her window. Outside, in the dim light of the early evening, Kakashi made a few hand gestures.

'_Mission, Grab your gear. West gate. Send for others.'_

Naruto nodded and sighed, but swiftly followed the order.

* * *

Sakura put down her book when she heard light footsteps on her balcony. Either Naruto or one of her clones had shown up outside. Sakura gracefully swept across the room, opening the door. "Mission or secret tryst?"

The Naruto outside gave her a blank stare and pointed to the west before dispelling.

Sakura sighed and closed the door, "Mission then."

* * *

Sasuke looked up at the silhouette outside his kitchen window. he noticed a hint of dark red hair and the faint curves of a mask. "Where are we meeting?"

"West gate," the silhouette said, before disappearing.

"Fun while it lasted, I suppose."

* * *

Kakashi, Fast Response garb in place arrived outside the west gate, his subordinates were already there, decked out in their combat attire, alongside two full ANBU teams.

The silver-haired elite cleared his throat, "Move out. I'll give mission detail en route." Kakashi took his place with his team as the three squads silently left Konoha's welcoming walls into the ever darkening night.

* * *

**Omake**

Forging Fast Response Striving to be Better

Sakura stood, still stunned that the team, her team, had managed to pass the Genin Exam. It just seemed surreal.

She glanced around the training grounds. Kakashi had already left. Sasuke was nearing the edge of the field, but she could probably still shout out to him.

No, she didn't really want to Sasuke after what had happened, not now.

Her other teammate, Naruto was quickly collecting the salvageable weapons she had used during the test.

Sakura hadn't done nearly as well as she would have hoped during the test. That is to say, she had been almost entirely useless. Moreover, Sasuke had very bluntly proven that he wasn't going to go out of his way to protect her like she always thought he would. The next time a ninja like Kakashi said he was coming to kill them wouldn't end nearly as well as it had here.

She had to get stronger, fast. And, since she didn't know where Kakashi lived, she only had one option.

"Hey, Naruto," Sakura called out, a little timid.

Naruto picked up a few shuriken and turned to her, "What is it."

Sakura bit her lip. Why was she nervous about this? "Can you help me get stronger?"

Naruto stared at her for a long moment, "I can do a lot of things. That doesn't mean I will."

"Would you help me?"

"No," Naruto answered flatly.

Sakura was visibly stunned, "Please, I was useless during the exam. I have to get better."

Naruto sighed. Sakura was her teammate now, and she might save her life at some point. She would have to get more capable.

Naruto had gotten better, and she had done it on her own. There was no reason Sakura couldn't do the same.

Would Naruto have killed to have someone she could trust help her? Well, yes, but Sakura.. seemed like she genuinely wanted to improve herself. Plus, the drive to get better was something that she was very familiar with.

"Alright, I'll help you," Naruto said, "But, I expect nothing less than every bit of effort you have in that stick of a body you've got."

Sakura smiled, too caught up in Naruto's acceptance to get angry at the comment at her shape.

Naruto finished gathering up the fallen weapons and gestured to Sakura, "Come on, we start now."

"Now?"

"Now."

Sakura nodded determinately, "Okay, I'm ready."

Naruto smirked, "You're not, but that's the point." The blonde walked up beside Sakura, "Now, we're going to run fifty laps around this field. You need endurance like Suna needs rain."

Naruto began jogging at a relatively slow pace. "You will finish what you start. If you fall, I'm going to pick you up and keep going. If you can't stand, you'll get dragged. Understand?"

"Yes," Sakura said, "I'm not giving up on this."

Naruto chuckled and sped up, "You're going to hate me by the time we're done."

Sakura was sweating slightly as she sped up to match Naruto's pace. Maybe she should have waited for Kakashi after all.

* * *

Sakura gasped for air as she finally came to a stop.

Naruto had gotten faster and faster as the laps went on. When she fell, Naruto had picked her up as promised. Unfortunately the same held true when Sakura couldn't stand and Naruto had bodily dragged her through the last two laps.

The pink haired girl lay on the ground covered in fresh bruises and sweating buckets, "I think I hate you."

Naruto grinned in a distinctly fox-like manner, "Told you." The Uzumaki eyed her collapsed form appraisingly, "I think thats all for today. You do need to be able to come to team training tomorrow."

Sakura groaned. It was already dark out. Hopefully Kakashi would be as late as he had been earlier, so she could rest, because she didn't think a night of sleep was going to put her back at a hundred percent.

Naruto leaned over and bodily lifted her to her feet. The blonde secured Sakura's arm around her shoulder. There was no way the pink-haired girl could make it home on her own.

"Wait," Sakura said, "how did you do that?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Channel chakra to your muscles, it makes physical work a lot easier."

Sakura looked flabbergasted, "Why didn't you tell me that?"

Naruto shrugged, slightly jostling her fellow kunoichi, "I honestly thought you knew. Someone with your control should be able to use that really well."

Sakura felt her eye twitch, "That's it, I _know _I hate you."

The Uzumaki smirked, "Whatever keeps you going."

The two traveled through the streets of Konoha, Sakura would tell Naruto which direction to go every once in awhile. Sakura noticed something seemed decidedly off about her companion.

"Hey, Sakura whispered, "why are those people glaring at you?"

Naruto grunted, "It's complicated."

Sakura wasn't satisfied with the answer, but didn't want to push her enigmatic teammate too quickly. Seriously, the girl was almost never in class. She only showed up when Iruka dragged her to class. It just made it all the more baffling when Naruto would sleepwalk through just about any exam the teachers thought to give.

Sakura stopped Naruto outside of a modest two-story building with a balcony on the second floor. "This is it. Thanks for helping me this far."

"It's no problem. I couldn't let my protege sleep outside, could I?"

It was Sakura's turn to smirk, "Whatever you say, Naruto-sensei."

That actually drew a laugh from the blonde, "Right, well I'll see you tomorrow, Sakura"

"See you, Naruto" Sakura said.

Naruto leapt onto the rooftop of a nearby building and ran off into the night.

Sakura managed to open the door to her home, only to get an earful from her worried mother when she went in.

From the rooftop Sakura had seen her run from, Naruto watched Sakura get scolded by her parents. She chuckled wistfully before standing. She stretched out to leave, before looking back once more.

Sakura's father was looking right at her. The man with the sakura petal haircut gave her a small nod before closing the door.

Naruto blinked, then bounded across the tiled roofs on her way home.

Teammates, eh?

Maybe it'll work out.

* * *

**Another chapter in the books, folks. I'm sorry it took so long to come out, and wasn't quite as long as I'd like it to be. But, hey, at least it got finished.**

**This chapter was a little slow, but the next one should be very lively. We'll have to see how long it takes me to put that one together. Suffice to say, if Naruto's involved, things will explode.**

**I may have freaked some of you out last chapter. In regards to a pairing, nothing is even going to begin to happen until after the Chunin Exams, and even then, I may wait until post-timeskip. Hell, it's entirely possible I won't have one at all.**

**Anyway, as always thank you for your time and attention.**

**Catch you later. **

**-The Interrupter**


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